Kyle Petty refutes Martin Truex Jr.’s claim he got ‘used up’ during restart in Richmond

Kyle Petty heard the criticism from Martin Truex Jr. regarding the end of the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond, and he’s not exactly buying it.

During the latest episode of his Hot Take segment for NASCAR on YouTube, Petty refuted Truex Jr.’s claim that he got “used up” by his teammate in Denny Hamlin on the final restart, which led to the win slipping away from the No. 19 team, and into the lap to the No. 11.

“It came down to a green-white-checkered. Yes, he had dominated the race. Plenty of people dominate races and get beat. But it came down to a green-white-checkered. His teammate, who was coming. Who was coming on new tires. Had a better restart,” Petty said, regarding the final restart involving Truex and Hamlin during the Toyota Owners 400. “Listen, whether he rolled it or not, I’m not going to debate that. If this is a green-white-checkered, be up on the wheel and be ready to go Martin Truex. That’s all I’ve got to say to you.

“Then he says, ‘I got used up.’ I haven’t seen him get used up. I saw Denny edge him up a little bit. That’s not used up. Truex would’ve done the same thing in one and two. Then he falls like a rock. Just starts dropping. And at the end of the race, he turns left on the No. 5 car of Kyle Larson, in the middle of the back stretch. Larson gives it back to him when it’s all overwith. But when Martin gets out, we hear how it was everybody else’s fault. Everybody else’s fault. Got rolled on the restart. Got used up in turns one and two. Did he say anything about his pit crew getting their butt kicked on pit road? That’s enough about Martin Truex.”

Alas, Petty makes some good points, regarding where Truex Jr.’s anger should’ve been placed after the race. Still, there’s bound to be frustration regardless with the way the win slipped away from the No. 19 team.

After the race, Hamlin wanted to make sure everything was kosher between himself and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate in Truex Jr. and the No. 19 team. The Richmond victory actually revealed he texted Truex Jr. during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I texted Truex, I said, ‘Am I missing something of why you’re so upset?’” Hamlin shared on the new episode of his podcast. 

As for the response from Truex Jr., the veteran just had a moment of frustration, but there’s apparently no ill-will between the drivers, “I’ll paraphrase it for you, he says ‘No, we’re all good I just lost my mind.’ That’s what he said, paraphrasing. ‘No you’re fine, I lost my mind there for a minute.’ My response is, well rightfully so,” Hamlin added.

“He obviously deserved to win the race, he had the race won, but surely that was a bad five minutes for him and the 19 team.”

Evidently, there won’t be any beef between Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. moving forward, but the latter is certainly frustrated with how the end of Sunday’s race at Richmond turned out for his team.