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Martin Truex Jr.'s rollercoaster of a season in the NASCAR Cup Series is set to continue this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. As the teams and drivers prepare to go racing for the final two spots in Championship 4, the #19 Toyota Camry TRD driver finds himself 37 points out of contention for the cutoff.
Despite managing to win the regular season championship and kicking the year off on the right foot with a win at the LA Memorial Coliseum, Treux Jr.'s speed seems to have waned off. Sometimes due to erratic strategic calls, or due to misjudged setups on his car, the New Jersey native is in a tough spot going into the final Round of 8 race this weekend.
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James Small, Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief in the Cup Series elaborated on what has gone amiss from the team recently and what kind of turnaround he expected going into this Sunday (October 28).
He elaborated to racer.com on Thursday (October 26) and said:
"It’s just been a very weird playoffs," Small said. "It feels very much like the stuff we went through last year, you name it, something went wrong. But we’re still in it with a shot. I feel like we just have to go and win. There’s really only one option. There’s not too much stress about it, so it’s just like, what can we do to go and put ourselves in the best position to win?"
Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief elaborates on last weekend's engine failure on the #19 Toyota Camry
Martin Truex Jr. has been the only driver to lose an engine during racing conditions in catastrophic fashion.
With smoke seen coming out of his car's tailpipes in Homestead-Miami last weekend, the #19 crew was knocked back on the standings table to 17 points below the cut line.
Truex Jr.'s crew chief James Small elaborated on the same and said:
"The engine failure over the weekend really, really hurt us because, given the day we had and the pit stop issues and the untimely caution, I still think we could have got back to within the top five. And the whole points scenario would be completely different."
Watch Martin Truex Jr. race at Martinsville Speedway during the Xfinity 500 this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET.
