Mandatory Credit: Amy Kontras-USA TODAY Sports

Martin Truex Jr. reflects on early exit at Kansas: ‘It’s a real shame’

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Jonathan Howard | Last updated 9/10/23

Only a few laps into the race, Martin Truex Jr. suffered a punctured tire and would soon find himself wrecking into the wall. The NASCAR Cup Series regular season champion is now going to be in a dire position to en the Round of 16 at Bristol.

Kansas Speedway has been problematic this weekend for a number of drivers. Martin Truex Jr. was the latest to find himself with an issue. It happened to be detrimental.

The flat tire sent him up into the wall and the damage was too much to overcome. Truex was soon out of his car and talking to the NBC Sports team about what happened.

“Really unfortunate, very unlucky,” Truex Jr. said after being released from the care center. “It took off really tight, knew something was up then it blew a right rear. Not really sure what happened, obviously it blew in the worst place possible. So just, man, I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome race car we were going to have a really good day. Just not real sure how to get some luck right now.

“In hindsight, I guess I should have just pitted, but at that point in time, you just don’t know if the car is just really tight or what’s going on. It’s a real shame. I hate for my team. We had a really, really fast Bass Pro Toyota. I can’t imagine about being this unlucky.”

The driver doesn’t know what this means for his championship hopes. He will have to wait and see what the rest of the NASCAR Playoffs field does today.

“We’ll find out when today is over. “It’s not a thing we can do about it right now.”

Martin Truex Jr. will fall far after Kansas

While it would help if a Joey Logano or a Kevin Harvick were to wreck out of the race, Martin Truex Jr. likely won’t be so lucky. Instead, Truex will have to get himself mentally ready for Bristol. At this point, you have to assume he will need stage points and a top-5 finish next week to advance. And that is the best-case scenario.

It feels like Truex Jr. is going to be faced with a must-win situation. He has the ability to do it. There is no one who will say Truex Jr. can’t win at Bristol. The only problem is, winning anywhere in NASCAR isn’t as easy as just needing it.

As a former champion, Truex Jr. knows how these playoffs can go. There are times you hit the bad luck bug and that happened to the 19 team today.

With today’s race over for Martin Truex Jr., the only thing he can do is keep a stiff upper lip and move on to next week.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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