Martin Truex Jr. expressed his disappointment with his fourth-place finish at the Kansas Cup race. The race made history with Kyle Larson winning by a tiny 0.001 second margin, the closest ever in the sport. However, if the race hadn’t gone into overtime, it would have been two JGR drivers competing for the win instead of the Ford-Chevy duo.
Truex Jr. was leading when a caution came due to a spin by another driver, sending the race into overtime. He was battling his teammate, the 2017 Cup champion, for the win. Unlike Truex Jr., Hamlin had a disadvantage as his fuel was running low and he would have lost the race to Truex Jr.
Truex Jr. also had a chance to win the race during the overtime run, but he was unable to pass Elliott, who proved to be a tough competitor. Truex Jr. believed that if he had been able to clear Elliott, he could have caught up to Larson and Buescher and taken advantage of their battle.
Truex Jr. stated in his post-race interview that if there hadn’t been a late caution, he would have caught up to Hamlin. He needed fewer people to take two tires instead of four during the final restart. He was confident that he would have easily passed Hamlin for the win.
The No. 19 team has been in contention in many races this season, but poor execution and luck have cost them in the final laps. They need to focus on improving their execution, and the luck will naturally come back to them.