HOMESTEAD, Fla. — A playoff that has been miserable for Martin Truex Jr., the regular-season champion, only got worse Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Within moments of teammate Denny Hamlin hitting the wall and ending his race after 236 of 267 laps, Truex came to pit road with his car smoking, his day also done.
Truex and Hamlin — who ended the regular season first and second before the points were reset — both head to next week’s elimination race at Martinsville 17 points from the cutline and a chance to join teammate Christopher Bell in the championship race in two weeks at Phoenix.
Sunday proved to be yet another disappointing day for Truex and his No. 19 team. He narrowly avoided becoming the first regular-season champion eliminated in the first round and slipped through the second round due to the playoff points he earned in the regular season.
“Everything has gone wrong,” crew chief James Small said after the No. 19 car was pushed to the garage. “Every conceivable thing.”
Only once has Truex finished better than 15th in eight playoff races this season.
Truex has been thwarted by a cut tire that caused him to crash (Kansas), a blown engine (Homestead), and a “terrible decision” as Small said about his call not to pit Truex last week at Las Vegas, costing Truex stage points.
“We can’t afford to give up points,” Truex said Saturday after winning the pole at Homestead. “We have to get all we can (Sunday). I feel like we missed a few in stage 2 last weekend. Hopefully, that doesn’t come back to haunt us.”
It could after Sunday’s race.
Truex, who finished 29th, left without talking to media Sunday.
Small aptly described the feelings of the team.
“Disappointing day,” he said.
As to what caused the engine issue, Small said: “I’m not exactly sure what happened. There’s oil everywhere. Obviously, something is broken in the valve train or something.
“One more shot, so we ain’t out of it yet.”
With Bell joining Kyle Larson in the championship race, only two spots remain. William Byron, who has won a series-high six races, is 30 points ahead of the first driver outside a playoff spot and 20 points ahead of Ryan Blaney, who sits on the cutline.
Unless Byron has major issues next weekend, he could secure the third spot in the championship, leaving Blaney, Hamlin, Truex, Tyler Reddick (10 points below the cutline) and Chris Buescher (43 points below the cutline) to fight for the final spot.
Hamlin was 10 points above the cutline before his car slid up the track and slammed the wall. He said on the radio that he thought something broke with his steering.
Now he’s left with one chance to return to the championship race.
“I pretty much got to win,” said Hamlin, who continues to search for his first Cup championship in an otherwise Hall of Fame career. “We were in this situation last year and we dominated the race (at Martinsville before finishing fifth).
“I felt like the last two years in a row we dominated the fall race.”
As for being in this situation, Hamlin said: “It’s disappointing, but that’s the format. You know if you have one bad race, especially in the Round of 8, you’re cooked and what you did for the first 35 races just doesn’t matter.”
While Joe Gibbs Racing has one car in the title race with Bell, Gibbs could see Hamlin and Truex fail to advance.
“It’s just amazing sometimes what can happen in this sport,” Gibbs said Sunday. “To have (Truex’s team) do what it did in the regular season, you don’t luck out on that. That was 26 weeks, won it by a bunch. It shows you what can happen in sports. It’s the greatest reality show in the world because we don’t know.”
