Martin Truex Jr. took a gamble that did not pay off at the end up the opening race of the round of 8 of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Martinsville Speedway.
Leading up to the checkered flag at the opening race of the round of 8 of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the First Data 500, at Martinsville Speedway, Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. engaged in an intense battle for the race lead for several laps.
Logano led an overwhelming majority of the closing laps of the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, but he and Truex Jr. were side-by-side through many of the turns.
While there were some slight bumps and bangs as well as some rubbing between the two drivers, the battle was clean. Despite the fact that he could not seem to pass Logano, Truex Jr. never resorted to spinning Logano out.
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Not spinning Logano out was the gamble that the driver of the #78 Toyota chose to take.
First of all, this would have brought out a caution flag with more than one lap to go, so a restart would have ensued and Truex Jr. would have likely been in a position where he would put himself at risk of being spun out. Secondly, this would have caused Logano to seek revenge; there are no two ways about it.
But this gamble turned out to be one that did not pay off for the defending Cup Series champion.
Truex Jr. finally drove his #78 Toyota past the #22 Ford of Logano coming to the white flag, and he cleared Logano’s car coming onto the back straightaway. As a result, instead of being behind Logano with a chance to move him out of the way, or perhaps even spin him out, on the race’s final lap, which would have all but sealed Truex Jr. the victory, Logano was in this exact position.
Given the fact that Truex Jr. raced Logano clean the whole time that they were battling side-by-side with Logano in the lead, those few seconds of Truex Jr. leading Logano down the back straightaway on the race’s final lap caused may fans to wonder whether or not Logano would race Truex Jr. the same way that Truex Jr. raced him.
Truex Jr. essentially gambled that Logano would do so.
But instead, Logano moved the #78 Toyota out of the way in turn three before the two drivers bumped and banged into one another all the way to the checkered flag. Logano ended up winning the race while Truex Jr. ended up settling for third place, as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin snuck up to take second in his #11 Toyota.
Here is a video of how the race ended.
Martin Truex Jr. made a decision to race Joey Logano clean clearly hoping that once he finally passed Logano for the race lead, Logano would do so same. Unfortunately for Truex Jr., this gamble did not pay off, and as opposed to becoming the first driver to clinch a berth in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4, he got to watch Logano do just that.
But while it is hard to blame Logano for going for the win and the Championship 4 berth, I certainly wouldn’t rule out payback from Truex Jr. in the future.