BRISTOL, Tenn.—Last year two Cup champions, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, were eliminated from the Playoffs after the first round.
Harvick was still the alpha driver for Stewart-Haas Racing. He won back-to-back races the month before the postseason began. The No. 4 team had a tremendous spark as the regular season wound down—until three consecutive DNFs compounded by a disastrous pit stop at Bristol derailed any hope of a second Cup title.
Busch was in a completely different predicament. The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team was on life support as Busch was a lame-duck driver and M&Ms was scheduled to leave at season’s end. Three days prior to last year’s Bristol Night Race, Richard Childress Racing announced the two-time champion would pilot the No. 8 Chevrolet for the 2023 season.
Busch hasn’t reconciled finishing 13th in the 2022 standings.
“Probably still not over it,” Busch said. “That was pretty disappointing. A lot of unfortunate circumstances kind of happened that took us out of that one. But nothing you can do to change it. What happened happened. So just move on and look forward to this year and hopefully being able to have a normal, Kyle Bristol race and get out of here with some good points and move on in the next round. If not, maybe a win.”
Martin Truex Jr. can relate to his fellow champions’ frustrations. Entering the final race of the Round of 16, Truex is on the bubble following a mediocre finish at Darlington and disastrous misfortune at Kansas Speedway, where his tire was punctured three laps into the race, sending him hard into the Turn 3 wall.
“It’s a terrible spot to be in–last week, we didn’t even get a chance to race, which was disappointing,” Truex said on Friday. “I felt like it was probably the best car I had on a mile-and-a-half all year long. I was really excited about it after coming off a tough Darlington race, and then two laps in, you feel like you’re in trouble with a flat tire and it turns out you ran something over. It’s terrible bad luck.
“I don’t know what you do about it. You just move on and do the best you can Saturday night. Obviously, it’s a bad spot to be in.”
Truex has advanced to the Championship 4 five times since the Playoff format was introduced in 2014. He won the 2017 title while driving Furniture Row Racing. Yet after an average finish of 36th in the first round of the postseason, Truex finds himself seven points below the cut line at a track that traditionally has not been his best.
In 32 starts on the half-mile bullring, the 43-year-old racer has just two top fives and four top 10s. While he’s completed 95.4 percent of all laps raced at Bristol Motor Speedway, he’s still justifiably nervous entering Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
“I think it has been a lot of different issues over the years,” Truex said. “We’ve run well here at times. We’ve certainly struggled at times, but I think everybody has. This place is tricky with the spray, and the groove moving around. We won’t race where we practice. It’s a little bit of a challenge there, but all of the times we’ve run here it’s always been a flat tire or a loose wheel. I can’t even use both hands to count all of the times that has happened.
“It’s just been a tough place, hopefully, no bad luck tomorrow night and we can go just have a smooth race and hopefully have the performance to get the job done.”
Unlike Busch or Harvick in 2022, Truex has enjoyed a remarkably consistent season. His DNF at Kansas was just his second in a season that was buoyed by three wins, nine top fives, 15 top 10s in the first 26 races. With six stage wins—and by winning the regular season title—Truex added 36 bonus points to his tally.
Perhaps his years of experience in the Playoffs allay some of his fears. Truex also knows he has one hell of a support system from his James Small-led team.
“Just working together for a while helps,” Truex said. “We feel confident in one another and our abilities. I’ve got a great team. I know what they are capable of. For me, you can’t change what happened last week or the week before – you just learn from it and move on and try not to let it affect this week.
“Tomorrow night is a big race. This hasn’t been our best place, by any means, but I look forward to the challenge. It’s going to be what it’s going to be. We just have to do our best. Hopefully, it shakes out and we can start round two in a good spot again.”
In qualifying Friday evening, Truex qualified his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota fifth assuring him good track position head of Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race which will begin at 6:30 p.m. (Originally slated for 7:30 p.m. ET).
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
