NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks Martin Truex Jr. needs to drive dirtier
By Nick Tylwalk
Martin Truex Jr. was defiant after Joey Logano roughed him up to win at Martinsville, but an old friend says he needs to back that attitude up with action.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. have been friends for nearly two decades, and the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion owes his career to Dale Jr. in a number of ways. So when the current NBC Sports commentator did a little analysis on Truex after the First Data 500 in Martinsville, you figure he’s got some true insight.
Junior did exactly that, noting that he was surprised that Truex raced Joey Logano as clean as he did in the closing laps. He seemed to be advocating that Truex drive dirtier if he wants a chance to repeat as champ, saying that there’s a disconnect between his personality and his on-trace demeanor.
“Martin is an outdoorsman, he’s a hunter, he’s tough, he’s rugged,” Earnhardt said on his Dirty Mo Radio podcast this week.
“That’s really Truex, but he races differently,” Earnhardt continued, after offering that Truex was so mad after the checkered flag at Martinsville that he couldn’t remember what he said to NBC Sports announcer Parker Kligerman. “He talks like Earnhardt, races like Mark Martin. I told him that. I said you ought to talk like Earnhardt and drive like Earnhardt.”
Dale Jr. is talking about his dad, not himself, and the “races like Mark Martin part” is not a slight in the least. Plus Truex has already achieved something that even the Hall of Famer Martin never did by winning the championship last season.
Still, it’s easy to see what Earnhardt Jr. is getting at here. It’s honorable to race others as clean as possible, and to treat other drivers like you’d hope they treat you. But when they resort to the bump and run, like you had to figure Logano was going to do when the chips were down, then it’s not worth dying on the hill of honor if it means losing a race you would otherwise have won.
Next. The Spanish call of the Logano-Truex battle to the checkered flag at Martinsville is magic. dark
In other words, Truex may not want to get dirty, but when others leave him no choice, no one will think lesser of him if he has to put the bumper to someone. Except maybe Logano’s fans, of course, but turnabout is fair play, and definitely Earnhardt approved.