James Small downplayed the shouting match between he and Martin Truex Jr. during the Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway Monday.
Speaking with the media after Truex Jr’s victory at the “Monster Mile,” the crew chief of the No. 19 said he had already apologized to Truex Jr.
“It’s normal. I’m fairly emotional,” Small said, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “I was calm all race, but he was killing me through the middle there because it’s hard. He can’t see what’s happening in the race, as well, with the other cars and the lap times and everything. I think he thought in that second stage there where we ran longer and all that, that we actually lost a lot of time.
“But we gained time and you could see where it was going to go. Obviously we came from the back after our issue on pit road, and all the way up to fourth in that stage. We had a plan and stuck to it. And yeah, I already apologized to him for getting on his ass.”
Martin Truex Jr. snaps 54-race winless streak with victory at Dover
Truex Jr. snapped a 54-race winless streak in the Cup Series with the win at Dover. Holding off Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney, Truex Jr. followed up his brother’s win in the Xfinity Series with a win of his own. He led 68 of the remaining 69 laps en route to picking up his fourth-career victory at the 1-mile oval.
“It feels incredible,” Truex Jr. said. “I feel like we’ve been close a bunch of times, that’s for sure. Felt today, with that caution, what’s going to happen here and then good call by James to take two [tires] and then I was able to get a pretty good restart.
“Just thanks to everybody that stuck with me… We knew we could do this. We’ve shown we can lead laps and have dominated races and it just never all came together. I’ve said we just had to keep doing what we were doing and not overthink it.”
Earning his 32nd Cup Series victory, Truex Jr. is relieved the losing streak is over.
“Such a long winless streak,” Truex Jr. said. “I’ve only won 32 of these things now, you guys. It’s really, really hard to win these races, you guys, OK?”