Martin Truex Jr. was the driver to beat in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Until he wasn’t.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led a whopping 228 of the 407 laps around the .75-mile D-shaped oval and was leading in the closing laps.
However, a caution for a spinning Kyle Larson with two laps to go erased Truex’s sure-fire victory.
After the final round of pit stops, the No. 19 Toyota team got beat out of the pits by teammate Denny Hamlin. Then in an overtime restart, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota seemingly jumped the restart by the slightest of margins, but not enough for NASCAR to act.
That gave Hamlin the advantage entering turn one.
“I felt like 11 (Hamlin) used me up down there in turn one,” Truex said. “I didn’t really appreciate a teammate racing me like that. I wish he would’ve gave me a chance. But, that’s the way it is.”
With Truex feeling like he was used up in the corner, his frustrations boiled over on the final lap.
Halfway down the backstretch with the checkered flag in hand and the race lost in third, Truex body slammed Larson as the two fought for position.
More contact ensued between the two drivers as they crossed the start/finish line, with Truex, who finished fourth, driving away to find Hamlin’s rear bumper on the cool-down lap.
“I don’t know if his spotter didn’t say that I was inside of him or what, but he just hung a left and hit my right front, had me up on the apron,” Larson said after a third-place finish. “Then turned left on me in the middle of the backstretch.
“We’re racing, we’re drag racing to the start/finish line and didn’t really care at that point if I was gonna squeeze him in the wall since he decided to turn left on me down the backstretch.
“I think ultimately, he’s just mad at Denny, and I was the closest guy to him to take some anger out on.”
From Truex’s side, he felt he had a tire going down and that was the reason for the contact.
“The 5 (Larson) just, he drove in the side of me in (turn) one and two, I got a little loose down the backstretch,” Truex said. “I don’t know if my left rear was going down or what and I kinda slammed into him. No big deal.”
While Larson dished it right back to Truex in the heat of the moment, there’s no love lost toward the 43-year-old driver.
“Martin’s one of the most, probably the most respected guy in the garage area,” Larson said. “So, I was surprised when he turned left on me down the backstretch, and then after the checkered.
“It’s all good. I hope he doesn’t have any hard feelings to me because I definitely don’t towards him. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for him.”