Surrounded by literally everyone from Joe Gibbs Racing and longtime supporter Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops, Martin Truex Jr. confirmed that this would be the final full-time season of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
With 20 more races left to go this season, Truex made the announcement sitting on one Cup Series championship (2017) and 34 victories at the highest level over 673 starts across two decades of competition.
Truex has wrestled with this decision for the past three years. At 43 years old, he is still incredibly competitive but has also pondered what life looks like on the other side of it the rigorous routine of racing in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Honestly, I’ve thought about it a lot the past few seasons and just waited for that feeling in my mind to be positive, like ‘this is okay, I’m good, I want to do something else.’ Yeah, something just felt different this year for me. I felt like it was time to slow down and do something else. It’s been a great ride.”
Truex, who has yet to win this season but currently sits fifth in the championship standings, says the decision wasn’t made for competition reasons. It just came down to the life he wanted to live approaching his mid-40s and after decades chasing this career.
“I’ve never missed a race in 21 years,” Truex said. “I never missed a practice. I’ve never been late for anything. I’ve never missed an appearance.
“I mean, you live your life by a schedule that somebody makes for you and it’s just time for me to make my own schedule. It’s really as simple as that. What it really boils down to me is that I want to go and do the things I want to do and I don’t want anyone to tell me when I can and when I can’t do those things.”
Joe Gibbs, who brought Truex over to his team in 2019, has long fought to retain his driver each time this came up. Over the past two years, he’s said publicly what he has told Truex, that the driver is in the prime of his career, capable of winning races and championships and making a lot of money to do it.
Gibbs wanted to maintain the status quo for another year, even if it was on another patchwork one year agreement.
