Kevin Harvick evaluates what caused Martin Truex Jr.'s wreck with Ryan Blaney at Darlington
Martin Truex Jr. wrecked Ryan Blaney during the Southern 500, and Kevin Harvick has some interesting thoughts. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick explained how Truex made a mistake he normally doesn’t make.
“I went through this my last year, there’s a lot to manage that you typically wouldn’t manage because it’s your last year with people showing up and things happening,” Harvick said. “…We just don’t see Martin Truex make these types of mistakes very often. With this car, the way that he hit those front wheels. We saw it with Corey LaJoie at Michigan, we’ve seen it with a bunch of guys. People are like ‘Oh I don’t know, I don’t know what happened.’
“When you hit that right front tire like he hits it, it makes the car go sideways and in those moments, it’s hard to just spin the car out because it hall happens so quick. When you correct it and those wheels are to the right, it makes it go back up the racetrack. Blaney was in the wrong spot, but man we just don’t see many mistakes for Truex. That all but cost him a playoff bid.”
The wreck happened during the third lap at Darlington and both drivers retired from the race. “It just took off on me, and that’s obviously on me,” Martin Truex Jr. told reporters after being evaluated and released from the infield care center, per NASCAR.com. “I hate to make a mistake that early in the race. It’s all my fault. I hate it for Blaney and apologize to his guys. Yeah, it caught me by surprise, and it’s just a stupid mistake — inexcusable.”
“Can’t change it now, so I’m not going to get too crazy about it, but just really sad for my team,” Truex added. “They deserve better than that. We had an amazing race car. I felt so good about tonight. Just really sorry I let everybody down.”
The good news for Truex is he did enough to clinch a spot in the playoffs despite not winning a race during the regular season. The 44-year-old is looking to win his second Cup Series championship before he calls it a career. In June, Truex announced his retirement from full-time racing. In his career, Truex won 34 Cup Series races and earned 289 top-10 finishes. Along with winning the Cup Series title in 2017, Truex won the regular season championship twice and is a two-time winner of the Coca-Cola 600.