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2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. remains one of the few veterans of the sport yet to visit Victory Lane in the 2022 season. With two races to go before the teams and drivers head to the playoffs, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver remains without a victory to his name despite yesterday's Federated Auto Parts 400.
The 400-mile-long race at the Richmond Raceway saw the 42-year-old driver finish in P7 at a track that has historically been Truex Jr.'s strong suit. The #19 Toyota Camry TRD driver qualified in sixth position for Sunday's race after Hendrick Motorsport's Kyle Larson took the pole award. As the checkered flag dropped at the 0.75-mile-long track, Truex Jr. managed to recover from being a lap down at one point in the race to finish well in the top-10.
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However, with the battle for the final playoff spot going strong between himself and Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, a P7 finish was not enough for the Stafford Township, New Jersey native to close the gap on his rival. Even though Blaney ultimately finished in P10, the #12 Ford Mustang driver managed to bag stage points.
Martin Truex Jr. elaborated on his woes during the race to track-side media, saying:
“Honestly, it was nothing like yesterday. I don’t know. We’re kind of at a loss right now thinking about why. At the end of the day, just not good enough. Really battled hard and made a lot of great adjustments. I mean, Stage 2 there, I thought we were going to finish 20th at best, you know what I mean. It was pretty bad, but kept working on it and got better and ended up with a decent finish, just not what we needed to do here.”
Martin Truex Jr. went from a 19 point deficit to a 26 point deficit after yesterday's Cup Series race.
Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief on what the team needed to challenge at the front
James Smalls, the crew chief for the #19 team at Joe Gibbs Racing, pinned down the issues Trux jr. had on track on the car's handling. Smalls described the #19 Toyota Camry TRD as 'tight' throughout the weekend, and said:
“We just started off way tighter than we thought. There’s no reason why we should have been tight. I have no (expletive) idea. But yeah, just got behind and worked on it. You know, he drove his (expletive) off all day and got back on the lead lap all by himself. We made it better at the end, it just wasn’t good enough. We just … we were average, and we needed to be exceptional today.”
Martin Truex Jr. will be looking to make an impact in the remaining two races of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season if he hopes to seal his spot in the playoffs.
