Kevin Harvick disagrees with Martin Truex Jr. over incident with Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson
Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t happy with Ross Chastain after he hit the outside wall hard exiting Turn 3 on Lap 105 of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“[No.] 1 car, just shoved me out of the way, as usual,” Truex said on the radio afterward.
On the replay, it didn’t appear that Truex and Chastain ever made contact. Speaking on his “Happy Hour” podcast, Kevin Harvick said he saw Truex make contact with Kyle Larson instead, which triggered the wreck.
“I saw Kyle Larson and Martin make contact and Ross come down the racetrack and they were three-wide, but really the incident was caused by the 5 and the 19 making contact in the middle of the corner,” Harvick said. “So, I think Martin’s counting them down. I think at this point, he knows he’s retiring and they wanna do good but moments like this make him pretty happy that he knows he only has 14 more. … Everybody was holding everybody tight but, in the end, I felt like Martin kind of put himself in that position to have the contact and then he wrecked.”
Martin Truex Jr. struggling to finish strong in final Cup Series season
Truex, retiring from full-time Cup Series competition after the 2024 season, remains winless through 22 races. He is currently in the middle of a dry spell of sorts, as he has tallied just two top 10s in the last 10 races. After finishing 27th at IMS, Truex fell to 7th in the points standings.
With just four regular season races remaining, Truex still has a comfy cushion in the playoff race. He sits 108 points above the playoff cutline and isn’t in any current danger of missing out on the postseason in his final campaign.
When it comes to the possibility of him finding Victory Lane one final time, Harvick isn’t so sure it’s in the cards.
“I don’t think it’s gonna get a lot better,” Harvick said. “I think they have the speed to be able to go out and win races, but it’s all gonna have to work out right for them to be able to do that.”