A rocky rookie season for Sprint Cup driver Ryan Truex continued last weekend when he did not compete in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for BK Racing. Travis Kvapil instead drove Truex’s No. 83 Toyota Camry.
Now, it sounds like Truex, the younger brother of Furniture Row Racing pilot Martin Truex Jr., will not be coming back to BK at all.
Reports of such of occurrence began to pop up earlier today, with Motor Racing Network announcer Dave Moody posting on his blog that sources within BK have told him the change at New Hampshire was due to “unhappiness with the level of feedback received from Truex.” MRN’s Dustin Long has also tweeted that no replacement for Truex has been announced yet.
However, Motorsport.com’s Nick DeGroot tweeted that Truex’s absence was due to BK owing Truex “a good amount of money.” He later disclosed that sources of his own passed along that news to him.
It does bear noting that in March of 2013, Hillman-Circle Sport driver Landon Cassill sued BK for $205,000 in unpaid winnings and other fees after he raced for them in the 2012 season. That suit was eventually settled.
As for Truex, his inaugural Cup campaign has been a rough one. He’s failed to qualify in three races and has suffered DNFs in eight of them.
He’s only had one Top-20 finish in 2014, a 20th-place run at Pocono Raceway in early August. In the other 22 races he’s competed in this year, he has not finished higher than 30th.
Three riders remain locked in a tight battle with 17 points separating the leader Cooper Webb from third-place Chase Sexton and these are only a few Supercross numbers to consider entering Seattle.Chase Sexton made a statement in Detroit with his second win of 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Webb and Tomac won the last four championships with two apiece in alternating years, but they were not one another’s primary rival for most of those seasons. On the average, however, the past four years show an incredible similarity with average points earned of 21.0 for Webb and 21.3 for Tomac. With five wins so far this season, Tomac (23 wins) leads Webb (19) in victories but Webb (43) edges Tomac (41) in podium finishes during this span.
Tomac has won two of the last three Seattle races and those two wins in this stadium are topped only by James Stewart. Fittingly, if Tomac gets a third win this week, he will tie Stewart for second on the all-time wins’ list. Tomac tied Ricky Carmichael for third with 48 wins at Oakland and took sole possession of that spot with his Daytona win.
Sexton still has a lot to say and after winning last week in Detroit, he is speaking up. The Supercross numbers are against him entering Seattle, however, because a points’ deficit this large after Round 10 has been erased only once. In 1983 David Bailey was 47 points behind Bob Hannah, and like Sexton he was also in third place. Bailey took the points’ lead with one race remaining.
The seven points Sexton was penalized last week for jumping in a red cross flag section in Detroit could prove extremely costly.
In fact, it has been a series of mistakes that has cost Sexton the most. In the last two weeks, he lost 10 points with a 10th-place finish to go with his penalty. Erase those, and all three riders hold their fate in their hands.
Plessinger’s heartbreak in Detroit is still fresh, but the upside of his run is that was his best of the season and could turn his fortunes around. Prior to that race, he led only seven laps in three mains. He was up front for 20 laps in Detroit with five of those being the fastest on the track.
Last week’s win by Hunter Lawrence tied him with his brother Jett Lawrence for 17th on the all-time wins’ list. With the focus shifting to 250 West for the next two rounds, Jett has a great opportunity to pull back ahead. The real test will be at the first East / West Showdown in East Rutherford, New Jersey on April 22.
Last Five Seattle Winners
450s 2022: Eli Tomac
2019: Marvin Musquin
2018: Eli Tomac
2017: Marvin Musquin
2014: Ryan Villopoto
