NASCAR fans, today has not been easy. Martin Truex Jr. ended his day early in Phoenix after slamming into a wall with 92 laps to go. Truex Jr. hasn’t had the best luck this season although he does have some solid finishes that put him in 2nd in the points standings going into today’s race.
Just when he was planning on making a move or two to put himself in a good position for the last laps of the race… things went bad. He just lost control of the car on the turn, it came in too fast, and he went right into the wall. This is going to be a minor setback for the talented and experienced driver.
It really is a shame. He raced well all day and one moment like that put him out for the day. Luckily, he avoided contact with any other drivers. The race went back under caution and Martin Truex Jr was towed off the track in Phoenix.
When the race restarted, this was a great time for Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott to get in the front. Ryan Blaney was leading for a lot of the race, but his steering wheel started to have issues and he wasn’t able to handle the car as well. This was a massively important restart.
Truex Jr. wasn’t the only driver to have some issues on the day, either. There were a lot of drivers from Kyle Larson to Blaney, Bubba Wallace, and more that had issues with their cars. The Next Gen vehicles are tricky. They are new, they are fun as hell to watch, but teams are struggling with them as well.
Martin Truex Jr. Out in Phoenix While Others Struggle
While the racing up front was exciting this entire race, some of the more exciting parts happened away from the lead. We had a speeding penalty that put a handful of drivers in the back of the pack and likely ruined some days. That wasn’t the case for Ryan Blaney who led for dozens of laps the entire day. However, it seems that he had some issues with his car late.
Blaney didn’t pull off like his teammate Kyle Larson did. However, it did put a damper on an otherwise great day for the 28-year-old driver. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace laid out a profanity-laden message to his crew. He wasn’t comfortable with the car and let them know it while he was down a couple of laps.
This season is a long one. However, each race matters. Those last few points might be the difference between 14-16 and 17-20. It is a race of margins and having to end early is never going to be a driver’s favorite option.
