Breaking news

NASCAR Cup

Truex: "It's a big impact" to have two crew members suspended

Martin Truex Jr. has enjoyed a phenomenal season — but this weekend he’ll have to carry on without his full pit crew.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Jul 29, 2017, 1:20 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota pit stop

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing ToyotaMartin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota pit stop

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota wrecks

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota nd Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota spin

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota restart

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota crash

Truex will operate sans his regular tire changers at Pocono Raceway.

Both crewmen — Chris Taylor and Lee Cunningham — were suspended for three races following a post-wreck altercation with Adam Stevens, crew chief of the No. 18 team and driver Kyle Busch.

“It’s a tough situation for us to be in—there’s no doubt about that,” Truex said. “I’m obviously not happy about how it all went down. I’m disappointed that I made a mistake, and it got us kind of in this position. I guess it is what it is, and we’ll deal with it the best we can, and we’ll go forward. It’s a big impact when they’re two of the best out there.

“Our pit crew has been amazing this year, putting us in position to win multiple races, not making mistakes—they’ve got everything. Those two guys are unbelievable, what they do. We’re obviously at a disadvantage without them.”

Truex and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team lead the Monster Energy Cup Series standings. He’s won three of the first 20 races and has 14 stage wins to boot. But last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Truex was going for the lead with Busch and wrecked the No. 18 JGR. Both drivers ended up on the sidelines following 110 of 160 laps.

Alliance between FRR and JGR

Complicating the situation is the technical alliance between Furniture Row and JGR. Truex hopes this latest run in doesn’t sour the relationship moving forward.

“I hope not,” Truex said. “I don’t think so. Again, it’s unfortunate that the mistake I made on the race track caused all this stuff to blow up.

“I’m proud of our pit crew guys and what they’ve done this year and what they continue to do for us, and like I said, we’ll just get through the next couple weeks as best we can.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Use of track bite could prove tricky at Pocono

Next article Matt Kenseth leads opening Cup practice from Pocono

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Jorge Martin: “I don’t feel I will struggle anymore” in MotoGP title run-in

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

38 min

Jorge Martin: “I don’t feel I will struggle anymore” in MotoGP title run-in

"Extremely difficult": Calendar clashes threaten Marco Wittmann's DTM future

DTM

DTM DTM 45 min

"Extremely difficult": Calendar clashes threaten Marco Wittmann's DTM future

Christian Horner's inside story of how Red Bull built its own F1 engine

Formula 1

Christian Horner's inside story of how Red Bull built its own F1 engine

Exclusive video: Christian Horner interview on his Red Bull exit, Mercedes rivalry and more

Formula 1

Exclusive video: Christian Horner interview on his Red Bull exit, Mercedes rivalry and more

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts