Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.
Having ample moments of road rage through the first three races of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season is pretty standard. But having highlights this incredible is not.
Martin Truex Jr. had a rough day at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, lashing out multiple times throughout the Auto Club 400, including at his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and his pit crew after a painfully slow stop. He also started the race last in 38th after his car failed pre-qualifying inspection three times, so that didn’t help.
And despite the 2017 champion working his way up to the front at one point, Truex finished 14th, which is actually his best finish so far in a disappointing opening.
The radio audio highlights from Sunday’s race, of course, featured some fiery comments from plenty of usual suspects, like Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Blaney.
But nothing tops Truex, who’s had some outrageous meltdowns early in past seasons. So here are some of his best road rage quotes from Auto Club Speedway’s 2020 Cup Series race.
Let’s start with this one that’s still circulating around NASCAR Twitter. In the first stage (60 laps) of the race, Truex was looking for a hand from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota and Erik Jones in the No. 20 Toyota. And he was pretty angry when he didn’t get it.
Truex: [Expletive] the 20 and [expletive] the 11! They can both kiss my [expletive]!
Clayton Hughes, spotter: 10-4 on the kiss.
(Buys ticket for JGR Monday team meeting on Stubhub) #NASCAR #Fontana pic.twitter.com/g4ehYcMxsb
— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) March 1, 2020
In a later conversation with his new crew chief, James Small, Truex explained a little more calmly what was going on. But they still criticized the other JGR teams.
Truex: Just got caught in a bad spot there in traffic. It [expletive] killed us. Killed my front tires too.
Small: Doesn’t help when our teammates race us like jackasses every week as well.
Truex: Yeah, I don’t understand why they can’t just help push me by the next guy and not push the next guy back past me. I just don’t understand that. It’s like, kind of stupid.
While much of the No. 19 Toyota driver’s frustration was directed at his teammates, he wasn’t happy with plenty of other drivers on the track. He threatened to wreck Joey Logano in the No. 22 Ford, and the pair have a bit of history together in our NASCAR Feud of the Week series. He’s also threatened revenge on Logano before too but hasn’t followed through (yet).
Truex: Tell the 22 I should have wrecked him. Next time, I will.
Hughes: Yes, sir. Tired of that [expletive].
At about the two-minute mark in the video above, it appears the No. 19 does run into the back of the No. 22, but not enough to wreck anyone.
A common complaint of Truex’s also returned during the race at the two-mile track: lapped cars.
Truex has directed his road rage at lapped cars not getting out of the way of cars on the lead lap — he’s certainly not the only driver, either — and that was true at Auto Club Speedway as he moved through traffic, according to this radio quote per The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck:
“These [expletive] guys have no idea where they’re at!”
The No. 19 Toyota driver also can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to pit stops. A disastrous one in November — his team accidentally swapped left- and right-side tires — arguably cost him a second championship. At the Daytona 500 in February, he slammed into a rogue fuel can from Chase Elliott’s team while driving down pit road before ultimately crashing out.
And then Sunday, a pit stop in the final stage of the race took significantly longer than it should have.
Truex: What the [expletive] is going on?!
Small: I’m not too sure right now. It’s something with the gun.
As it turns out, the team’s rear tire changer got a cramp in the middle of doing his job — these guys are absolutely athletes too — and Truex wasn’t able to make up the positions he lost.
And later on in the race, Truex’s fury was redirected back to his teammates, specifically Hamlin. Again, Truex was looking for some help from Hamlin, and when he didn’t get it, he seemed almost resigned about it:
Truex: How many times, Denny? How many times?
For his part, Hamlin tried to explain himself over his team’s radio:
Hamlin: Tell him when he came to my right rear, it gets [expletive] tight.
Chris Gabehardt, crew chief: He don’t care about that, bud. You just gotta do you, man. You race the 11 car.
Regardless, Truex wasn’t happy, and that almost certainly made the Joe Gibbs Racing team meetings this week a little interesting, to say the least.
“I’m in trouble here. I’m plowing my [expletive] off from that [expletive] damage.”
[jwplayer MI8BOaKj-q2aasYxh]
