Truex Jr. forecast regrets as he Bows Out of Championship Hunt After Martinsville

Martin Truex Jr. had the right position to start the race. He didn’t have the right one at the end of it, and thus the NASCAR Cup Series regular season champ won’t be racing for the championship in the season finale on Sunday, Nov. 5.

After leading the first 47 laps from the pole during the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 29, Truex fell off the lead. Later his fate was sealed when a pit-road speeding penalty on lap 219 forced him into traffic, a circumstance he was unable to overcome, ultimately finishing 12th and missing a shot in the Championship 4 race in Phoenix.

“I felt like we did really good to get back to where we did,” Truex said after the race. “You just burn the tires off so much worse back there in the hot, dirty track, dirty air. You’re in more rubber. It’s just a dogfight. We gave it a hell of an effort. I felt like we had a really strong car; it wasn’t our year.”

William Byron, who finished 13th, edged Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, who placed third, for the fourth and final spot in the championship race, with Truex 28 points behind the elimination line.

A week earlier in the 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, both Truex’s No. 19 and Hamlin’s No. 11 experienced mechanical issues that forced them from the race within a lap of each other during the final stage – resulting in 29th- and 30th-place finishes, respectively, that ultimately stuck them in tough positions to try to climb back into the championship hunt.

Instead of competing for a second career Cup Series championship, the Stafford Township native, who won the crown in 2017, will be racing for fun in Phoenix, while JGR teammate Christopher Bell battles Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Byron for the title. Now out of the playoffs, Truex sits in the 12th position in the driver standings.