On one hand, Martin Truex Jr. has been here before, literally last year, but on the other hand, it’s never comfortable being below the cutline at any point in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Truex is facing the situation because he entered the playoffs as the lowest seeded contender and then was involved in a crash last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Does he feel like this is a must-win scenario over the next two weeks at Watkins Glen and Bristol?
“I really don’t know,” Truex said. “We will just have to see. It is obviously a bit of a hole to dig out of, so it is unfortunate last week that we got caught up in that and got some damage. I don’t know. We will just have to wait and see. We are going to try to win, but I think we will know more after this weekend is over.”
Truex has yet to win this season, his final as a full-timer at the highest level of the sport, and that has left him and crew chief vexxed because he has 34 victories and three last year.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t say pissed off – just a little bit frustrated with how things have gone lately,” Truex said. “No matter what we do – it is wrong, and we can’t catch a break. It has been frustrating, but the guys are working hard and a big weekend here. This is a good place for me, and I love coming up here. We put a lot of effort in, so we will see how it turns out this weekend.”
The especially frustrating part is that he is adamant that the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 has the speed to run with teammates and top contenders Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell.
But, it doesn’t change that eight of the last nine races have Truex finishing outside of the top-24. It nearly cost him a playoff spot and if it doesn’t improve, it will send him into retirement proper early.
“It is not a lack of speed,” Truex said. “It is a lot of different things. You call it a slump – great players get in slumps in other sports, and that is what I feel like it is. I feel like we are doing a lot of good things – we have lot of speed and put ourselves in position, we just have to put it all together. Some days I make mistakes, some days the team makes mistakes, some days – last week we got caught up in an accident. There has been a lot of that. Just have to put it together on one day and hopefully that is this weekend.”