Martin Truex Jr. has had enough.
The 2017 Cup champion was seemingly poised to make the most of a chaotic playoff race at Watkins Glen International. He’d won Stage 1, avoided the many accidents that befell his playoff rivals and was in the running for a top-15 finish in the final laps of Sunday’s race, and then everything went awry.
On a restart with three laps remaining, Todd Gilliland was forced to lift out of a potential overtake of Kyle Larson after a block entering the Esses. The field stacked up behind Gilliland and three sets of drivers crashed.
Included in the chaos was Truex, who washed up into the outside wall with Justin Haley. The damage hampered the handling of the No. 19 Toyota and relegated the New Jersey native to 20th at race’s end.
“We were in the wrong lane, on the short end of the stick as usual,” Truex said of the crash. “We were in a decent spot there. You go into the Esses and they just plow through you, put you in the marbles. This racing is just ridiculous. It’s a joke.”
After the checkered flag flew, the retiring veteran had some frustrations to get off his chest.
“It’s just crazy that all these races always come down to this,” Truex said. “I just don’t understand how guys can call themselves the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of these races.”