Martin Truex Jr.’s dreadful playoff run continued in Miami when he suffered an engine failure that not only ruled him out of the race but also left him in a dire situation to make it to the final 4. This engine failure left him 17 points below the cutline and in need of a miracle at Martinsville to salvage something out of their regular-season championship-winning year.
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But fortunately for the #19 team, this is exactly what Toyota is also aiming to do. The OEM recently took the blame for what happened to Truex in Miami last Sunday, happened, and now their focus is on how they’ll react to get the most out of Martinsville on the coming Sunday.
Toyota admits their fault in Martin Truex Jr.’s Miami woes, but looks forward
During an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, Toyota’s David Wilson took the fall for Truex’s race at Homestead, claiming this one was on them. “We build and we service and we own all of the engines that the Toyotas team run. This is our worst nightmare when we have anything go wrong with our engines,” he said.
Wilson claimed that it is their job and the basic expectations out of them to put quality engines in their racecars. The Toyota executive also pointed to the “perfect record” they had until Miami of having engine reliability, but a record that is now smudged. “Unfortunately, we can’t pick and choose when it’s gonna happen but it is a mechanical thing, but sometimes those things happen,” he described.
Having said that, Toyota’s focus is now on what’s ahead rather than what’s behind. Wilson elaborated, “We can’t change what happened. We can’t control what happened. We can’t rewind the clock, but what we will be measured on is how we respond to that.”
“So that response started on Sunday afternoon as soon as Martin pulled his car into the garage.”
💥 “This is on us […] our job is to put quality engines in the cars of each of our Camrys.”@DavidWilsonTRD took accountability for @MartinTruex_Jr‘s blown engine on Sunday @HomesteadMiami and says a valve spring was ultimately the culprit. pic.twitter.com/0ykTQiy9cS
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) October 25, 2023
Joe Gibbs didn’t hold back on the state of Truex’s season
After the race at Miami in which one of his drivers made it to the final 4, and two of his other playoff drivers drifted further away from the prospect of joining him, team owner Joe Gibbs delivered an honest statement about Martin Truex Jr.’s season. Gibbs admitted that while it’s hard to get into the final 4 and while nothing’s a given, one thing has been very clear with the #19 team.
“Certainly the #19, all they did in the regular season and as good as they are, but we’ve had real disappointments with everything that has happened,” Gibbs said.
So now, it’ll be interesting to see how Martin Truex Jr. and Toyota respond at Martinsville. Surely their eyes will be on the victory lane and regain their lost mojo, but it could get slightly tricky considering another one of their own, Denny Hamlin, will be targeting the same outcome.
