Martin Truex Jr. unhappy on radio following ‘nightmare’ finish at Richmond

Martin Truex Jr. seemed to leave Richmond Raceway notably displeased after an 11th-place finish on Sunday in a race in which the Joe Gibbs Racing driver led 56 laps but also had a terse scanner exchange with crew chief James Small. Tyler Reddick's Lap 372 spin triggered the penultimate caution flag of the 400-lap affair, and with it, the final round of pit stops. As the field hit pit road at Lap 375, all contenders had fresh Goodyear Eagles to utilize — except for Truex's No. 19 team, which was left with just a set of scuffed tires used for a six-lap stint earlier in the race. MORE: Analyzing Truex's day | Full Richmond recap Truex, a three-time Richmond winner, exited pit road third and maintained the position after William Byron went spinning off the nose of Christopher Bell. But the final 14-lap run to the checkered flag saw Truex plummet down the leaderboard outside the top 10 by the time the checkered flag waved. "What a (expletive) nightmare," Truex said on the radio at one point, believing his tires were flat. Small apologized to Truex over the radio after the checkered flag and explained why he did not inform Truex he was on scuffed tires until after the race concluded. "We had (expletive) scuffed tires on there because we hosed ourselves taking that set (of tires) in Stage 1," Small radioed. "So we were (expletive) regardless. Sorry. We (expletive) up." The end-race exchange can be heard entirely in the video above. Though he won the exhibition Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 5, Truex is in the midst of a 51-race winless drought. His last points-paying victory came Sept. 11, 2021, at Richmond. After missing the playoffs in 2022, Truex sits ninth in the current points standings with one top-10 finish (seventh, Las Vegas). Small has been atop the pit box for Truex since 2020, scoring five victories with the No. 19 team in that time, including a four-win campaign in 2021.