WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Martin Truex Jr. grunted. Denny Hamlin smiled. As the two sat below the line with one race left in the first lap, they had different attitudes after a chaotic playoff race Sunday at Watkins Glen.
Truex’s car was damaged in the latest incident while he was running 16th. Although he gained six spots in overtime to finish 20th, he was furious after getting out of his car.
“It’s the same reason I left the sport,” Truex told NBC Sports when asked how he felt about Sunday’s outcome. “I’m sick of it.”
“There’s green and white checkers at the end of the race and you know people are just going to run through everybody. We were in the wrong lane (and) in a bad position, as usual.
“We were in a decent position and when we get into the esses they just come at us and put us in the groove. It’s ridiculous. This race is just ridiculous.”
Truex is 14 points below the cutoff line heading into Bristol.
His teammate, Hamlin, is six points behind after a day in which his car was damaged in a first-lap incident and in an incident on Lap 47 of the 92-lap race.
Crew chief Chris Gabehart made it clear on the radio after Sunday’s race that six points would not be an obstacle at Bristol.
“It’s going OUR “Home,” Gabehart told Hamlin, who has won the last two races at Bristol. “… We’re six back. That’s going to OUR House.”
Hamlin may not have needed that pep talk. On Saturday, he spoke confidently about his start to Bristol, even though he was below the starting line.
Hamlin smiled and exuded confidence in pit lane Sunday, saying, “It’s not over yet. Not over yet. Not over until Bristol is over.”
Watkins Glen could have been a chance for Hamlin to rebound after sitting mostly at the back in Atlanta before being involved in a last-lap crash in the playoff opener.
That put him just over the finish line of Sunday’s road course race. He qualified 22nd. He was in the middle of the chaos on the first lap and couldn’t avoid Kyle Busch’s spinning car.
“It’s been a bad stretch,” said Hamlin, who finished 23rd – the eighth time in the last 13 races he has finished 23rd or worse.
“I wish I could say I controlled the situation better. It was definitely my fault in qualifying, I put us in a bad situation and that put us in the middle of the crashes. So I can’t complain if I’m involved.”
Chase Briscoe has avoided crashes and chaos. He finished last among the 16 playoff drivers after crashing in Atlanta. On Sunday, he finished sixth, the best among playoff drivers.
Briscoe moved up to 11th in the standings. He’s tied with Ty Gibbs for the final transfer spot, but Briscoe holds the tiebreaker of a better finish in this round.
“We did everything we needed to do,” Briscoe said. “We could have actually gotten six more points if I had been a little more aggressive, but I felt like the risk/reward wasn’t really worth it with the number of guys that were struggling. So overall it was a great day for us.”
Gibbs dropped three spots in overtime to remain in the final transfer spot after starting the day there.
“It was chaos, as usual, at the end of these kinds of things,” he said after finishing 22nd.
Brad Keselowski (-12) and Harrison Burton (-20) are also below the cut line.
Keselowski was penalized twice in the pits and was involved in a late-race crash, finishing 26th.
“I feel like we’re going to be able to salvage a really good situation with everybody on old tires and get back into the top 10,” Keselowski said. “Who knows, maybe a chance to be in the top five after everything we’ve been through and get through the first lap. That’s a tough way to do it.”
Burton blew a left rear tire on lap 79 and finished 24th.
“We tried a different strategy to get out of the sequence and a tire came off, so we came into the pits and I guess I blew that tire, so we had to come into the pits and that put us in a bad situation,” Burton told NBC Sports. “Then after our pit stop, we started hitting guys and passing them, and we blew a left rear tire. … We’re still in range for Bristol.”
