Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t sure what happened in the lap-89 incident involving playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick. The incident took both championship contenders out of contention in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas.
During lap 89 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Truex was running closely on the inside of Chase Elliott. While this was going on, Tyler Reddick lurked behind the two in his. As the cars worked their way off turn four, Elliott slipped up on the outside of Truex, sending him into Reddick’s car and crashing together, while also collecting Brad Keselowski. The 23XI Racing driver suffered a violent wreck as his #45 Camry flipped multiple times on the front stretch.
In an interview posted to X by racing insider Dalton Hopkins, the 2017 Cup Series champion was questioned about the crash:
I was on the bottom coming off [turn] four there,” Truex said. Thought we were two wide. Spotter said leave a lane. Not sure. We were kinda close together and the 9 lifted all of a sudden, so I’m not really sure what happened. I didn’t know we were three wide until it was too late, but I still felt like there was plenty of room, and the 9, I think, jumped out of the gas. Not really sure what happened.”
The New Jersey native then questioned the reporter if he had done something wrong, to which the latter responded by saying Elliott and Reddick expressed frustration with Truex on the radio
Truex added:
“My spotter told me I didn’t do anything wrong, so I’d have to go look at it.”
Truex finished sixth in Sunday’s race, while Elliott placed 33rd and Reddick 35th. Elliott is 53 points below the cut-off and Reddick is 30 points below with two races remaining in the Round of 8.
Martin Truex Jr. announced this past June that 2024 would be his final full-time season in the Cup series. The 44-year-old has won 34 Cup Series races and was the 2017 series champion.
In a press conference on the Friday before the Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, Truex said he’s ready to slow down in life and enjoy other activities aside from racing.
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