Crew chief laments "terrible decision" in keeping Martin Truex Jr. out

LAS VEGAS — Crew chief James Small told NBC Sports that he made a “terrible decision” to keep Martin Truex Jr. on track instead of pitting at the end of the first stage of Sunday’s playoff race, a move that left Truex mired in traffic the rest of the day.

Truex finished ninth at Las Vegas — his best finish in seven playoff races this season — but Small could not enjoy that achievement because of his frustration with the pit call.

“Just trying to make sure we had track position … I thought people might stay out and clearly they didn’t,” Small told NBC Sports of his reason not to pit Truex on Lap 83 of the 267-lap race. “It was just a terrible decision.

“If we had just taken right sides, we would have had the lead and it wouldn’t have been a problem. Just didn’t need to take that kind of risk with arguably a top-three car capable of winning. Just stupid really.”

Truex was fifth when the first stage ended. He moved to the lead when he stayed out and the rest of the field pitted during the stage break.

Truex had last pitted at Lap 68 with much of the field. They ran 10 green-flag laps before the first stage ended. Then came Small’s call to stay out.

“He told me that pretty late around the corner in (Turns) 3 and 4,” Truex said of Small’s decision to not pit. “My gut reaction was don’t do it, don’t stay out.

“I like to listen to my crew chief and do whatever they say no matter what because they know more of what’s going on than you do. Usually, the driver is 90% of the time wrong if they make their own decision or go against the crew chief, so I went with it, but I didn’t feel good about it. Ten laps … here is a lot on tires.”

Cliff Daniels, crew chief for winner Kyle Larson, called his driver to pit road for four tires at the end of the first stage because they had their qualifying scuffs and sought to replace them.

“In our position, we were committed no matter what that we were pitting and going to take four no matter what,” Daniels said. “Guys that had committed to (changing only right side tires at Lap 68), of course, with a lot of laps on their lefts, they would be committed to four.”

The three cars behind Larson at the end of the first stage — Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Tyler Reddick — each had changed only two tires at Lap 68, so they had the same left-side tires since stopping between Laps 32-39.

After the restart, Truex held on to the lead for seven laps. Teammate Denny Hamlin then took it from Truex, who fell steadily back.

“If we could have got a quick caution, it would have worked out great because we had the lead for (seven) laps, but once I got back to third or fourth, it just dropped like a rock,” Truex said.

Three laps after losing the lead, Truex was sixth. Two laps later, he was down to 11th. Over the next 120 laps, Truex was outside the top 10 except during pit cycles. He failed to score points at the end of the second stage.

“I thought if we had a clean track, we’d be OK, but clearly that wasn’t the case after about six laps. Then it all went south,” Small said. “Just a bad day behind the wall in general … strategy, pit stops, everything, it was pretty bad.”

Sunday’s result dropped Truex to fourth in the standings, the final transfer spot to the championship race. He leads Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell by three points, Tyler Reddick by 15 points, Chris Buescher by 23 points and Ryan Blaney by 56 points after Blaney’s car was disqualified for failing post-race inspection.

This has been a confounding playoffs for the Truex, Small and the No. 19 team. After winning the regular-season championship, Truex narrowly avoided elimination in the first round. Had Kyle Busch won at the Charlotte Roval instead of finishing third, Truex would have been eliminated in the second round.

Sunday marked the first time Truex has finished in the top 10 in the playoffs.

“That group knows they can do it because they did it over 26 weeks,” car owner Joe Gibbs told NBC Sports. “So, it’s a matter of hitting it. Coming here, we thought we would have a real good shot. … We’re working our butt off. We’re going overtime on pit road with practices. We’re doing everything, I think, we can do.”

The series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend, the final 1.5-mile track on the schedule. The Round of 8 ends in two weeks at Martinsville.

Despite his frustration, Small remained hopeful that the team could advance to the championship race in Phoenix.

“The cars are fast,” Small said. “They’ve been fast the whole (playoffs), really at these types of tracks. It’s just about having clean races executing.

“Tomorrow’s a new day and looking forward to Homestead. I think we can go win there.”