A dominating night for Martin Truex Jr. at Richmond Raceway turned into frustration and fender slamming over the final lap of the Toyota Owners 400.
The final caution with two laps to go set everything in motion. Truex had control of the race and was leading Joey Logano when Kyle Larson spun off Turn 4 from contact with Bubba Wallace. In the ensuing pit stops, Truex came off pit road second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, putting them on the front row for the restart.
Hamlin chose the inside and got the early advantage going into Turn 1, which Truex said was because Hamlin jumped the restart. He then took issue with how Hamlin ran him through the corner to take the lead and drive away.
— Racer —
Truex used his No. 19 Toyota‘s bumper to show his disdain for two targets on the cool-down lap. Larson, who scraped by him for third place in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, was first after the two came together multiple times in the final lap of overtime. Truex also nudged Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota before parking on pit road, telling reporters later that he felt his teammate had one, jumped the overtime restart, and two, aggressively forced his way by in the first turn.
“I just, I felt like the 11 used me up down there in Turn 1, and I didn‘t really appreciate a teammate racing me like that,” said Truex.
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Hamlin defended his restart tactics, saying that eventual second-place finisher Joey Logano was laying back and that Truex was inching ahead. “I wasn‘t going to let them have an advantage that my team earned on pit road,” said Hamlin, who added that he “went right at it” as he reached the restart zone. “Certainly made sure I went to my nose, got there, but I took off right away. Still, we were side by side down the water into Turn 1.”
— NASCAR.com —
NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer on wet tires, non competitive pit stops, did they see a jumped restart and why the Kyle Busch wall brush was a caution pic.twitter.com/RbMAqUkPfR
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) April 1, 2024
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