Denny Hamlin spoke out on a move Martin Truex Jr. made during the Pocono Cup Series race on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his thoughts on Truex Jr. pulling out of line during the restart after the Kyle Busch wreck.
“That was a killer,” Hamlin said who was in front of Truex at the time. “It’s very difficult and it takes a ton of discipline. When we take off at Pocono on restarts, you have to have the mentality that this is like a superspeedway. If you pull out of line, you are going to kill any of the momentum that that line had.
“What happens likely is that when you pull out of line, you might gain in the short-term, and that being you go down there and, ‘Alright, I passed the car that was right in front of me.’ Well, you got a train of cars on the outside that is going to just freight train you down at the end of the straightaway for one. And then you get off of Turn 2, top line is still the place that you want to be.”
Hamlin continued: “It’s a short-term gain, and I try to look to see did Martin really gain anything by it. I don’t think he did. It was kind of a wash. Certainly, you got a run and you want to take it. But what happens is it just really stalls the whole line out and the whole line drags backwards.
Martin Truex Jr. earned a P8 finish on Sunday but was not happy with his car. Late in the race, Truex said on his radio, “This thing is so f*cking slow on the straightaway. Junk. F*cking junk.”
Despite not winning a race this year, Truex is in a good postion tomake the playoffs as he in 13th place in the playoff standings with just five races remaining. It would be fitting for Truex to get another shot at winning the Cup Series title since he’s retiring at the end of the year.
“Just felt like the right time for me,” Truex said during his press conference in June. “Honestly, I’ve thought about it a lot the past few seasons and just waited for that feeling in my mind to be positive, like this is okay, I’m good, I want to do something else. Yeah, something just felt different this year for me. I felt like it was time to slow down and do something else. It’s been a great ride.”
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