Truex won the 2023 regular season championship and entered the 10-race playoffs as the No. 1 seed, was never able to capitalize on the speed his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had shown all year.
His team seem to struggle on pitroad, whether with penalties or slow stops or poor track position that got him caught up in on-track incidents. In fact, through nine playoff races, Truex has finished in the top-10 only once – a ninth place effort at Las Vegas.
