Martin Truex Jr. admits he ‘lost his mind’ in text to Denny Hamlin

Well, things have apparently cooled off between Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in less than 24 hours after Richmond. This is not going to turn into the NASCAR teammate rivalry that many may have hoped for.

Denny Hamlin won the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond on Sunday night in a controversial overtime finish. Did he jump the restart? Was he overly aggressive with his teammate who had led most of the race? Well, that’s up for debate.

However, one thing is for certain, Martin Truex Jr. isn’t harboring any ill will towards his teammate. At least, according to Actions Detrimental.

“I texted Truex, I says, ‘Am I missing something of why you’re so upset?'” Hamlin shared on the new episode of his podcast.

The response from Truex?

“I’ll paraphrase it for you, he says ‘No, we’re all good I just lost my mind.’ That’s what he said, paraphrasing. ‘No you’re fine, I lost my mind there for a minute.’ My response is, well rightfully so. He obviously deserved to win the race, he had the race won, but surely that was a bad five minutes for him and the 19 team.”

Why Martin Truex Jr. was really upset about Richmond

So, why was Martin Truex Jr. so upset? We rarely ever see flashes of emotion like we saw from him last night. He drove and bumped Hamlin and Kyle Larson after the finish, sharing his displeasure.

“Well we gotta understand too that Truex has dominated this race,” Hamlin continued. “I think six times, did I read that, six times he led over 100 laps and did not win this race. That sounds like Martinsville for me. It’s painful, it sucks d---- because you do everything right and then something out of your control takes you out. Like I said to him, understandably so, you deserve to be upset.”

It isn’t just the fact Martin Truex Jr. lost last night. It’s the fact that he has led a ton of laps at Richmond and really doesn’t have the wins to show for it. His worst finish since 2018 at the track is P11. He knows how to race well at Richmond.

Truex led for 228 laps on Sunday night. His car was dominant when he put it in the front. As the race went green it looked more and more like Truex was going to run away with it. Then, a late caution changes everything.

At times, that is just how NASCAR racing goes. Like Hamlin said, you can do everything right but all it takes is one moment to mess that up.