{"id":46689,"date":"2024-06-14T19:14:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T00:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=46689"},"modified":"2024-06-14T19:17:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T00:17:57","slug":"martin-truex-jr-announces-retirement-from-full-time-nascar-cup-series-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/martin-truex-jr-announces-retirement-from-full-time-nascar-cup-series-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Truex Jr. announces retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em> <\/p>\n

NEWTON, Iowa \u2014 Martin Truex Jr. felt it was time to regain control over his own life and his own schedule.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, waits on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 21, 2023 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously here to let y\u2019all know that I won\u2019t be back full-time next year,\u201d Truex said Friday in a press conference with team owner Joe Gibbs, confirming the widely reported news that he will exit the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been incredible. It\u2019s been a hell of a ride. I\u2019m excited about the future, and I\u2019m not really sure what that looks like yet,\u201d Truex added.<\/p>\n

There are several issues, however, that are already settled. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion will continue with JGR in what is vaguely defined as an \u201cambassadorial capacity.\u201d He likely will compete in an occasional NASCAR Xfinity Series race for the organization.<\/p>\n

And Truex will fulfill a stated purpose of reclaiming his time as his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the right time for me. I\u2019ve thought about it a lot for the last few seasons \u2014 just waited for that feeling in my mind to be positive, like \u2018This is OK, I\u2019m good, and I want to do something else,\u2019\u201d Truex said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 21 years that I\u2019ve done this, I\u2019ve never missed a race. I\u2019ve never missed a practice. I\u2019ve never been late for anything. I\u2019ve never missed an appearance. You live your life by a schedule that somebody makes for you, and it\u2019s just time for me to make my own schedule.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, crosses the finish line to win the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota \/ Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 11, 2023 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really what it boils down to. I want to go do the things I want to do, and I don\u2019t want anyone to tell me when I can and when I can\u2019t do those things. I still love racing. I\u2019m still going to race some \u2014 I don\u2019t know what, when, how, why \u2014 but I feel very fortunate to be in this position to make this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbs said he had a sense of what Truex\u2019s decision would be. Truex will turn 44 on June 29. That makes him the elder statesman of JGR by less than five months over teammate Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did everything I could to keep it going,\u201d Gibbs said of his efforts to retain Truex for another season. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got two 43-year-olds that are at the top of their game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in his 19th season of full-time Cup racing, Truex has accumulated 34 victories, 23 poles, 146 top fives and 287 top 10s in 673 starts in NASCAR\u2019s top series. He also won consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series titles in 2004 and 2005 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s Chance 2 Motorsports.<\/p>\n

Truex\u2019s high-water mark in the Cup Series came in 2017. Driving for Furniture Row Racing and paired with crew chief Cole Pearn, he scored career bests in victories (eight) and top 10s (26) en route to the series championship, which he claimed with a win in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, enters his car to qualify for the NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum at Los Angeles Coliseum on February 04, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

After stints with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Furniture Row, Truex joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019. He won seven times that season and finished second in the final standings for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

Though winless so far this season, Truex currently is fifth in the Cup Series standings, despite running out of fuel and finishing 27th in last Sunday\u2019s road course event at Sonoma Raceway.<\/p>\n

NASCAR President Steve Phelps acknowledged Truex\u2019s achievements in a statement extolling his successes as a competitor and a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin Truex Jr. has been a consistent figure over the last two-plus decades in NASCAR \u2014 a consistent winner, champion and fan-favorite,\u201d Phelps said. \u201cThough he especially excelled on NASCAR\u2019s biggest stages, Martin performed his craft with a quiet tenacity, allowing his immense success tell his incredible story.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the France Family and all of NASCAR, I congratulate Martin on a wonderful career and wish him the best of luck for the remainder of his final full-time season.\u201d <\/p>\n

As he plans his exit from full-time racing, Truex has few, if any, regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say I\u2019ve achieved more than I ever thought I would,\u201d he said. \u201cThat being said, there\u2019s a lot of heartbreakers. There\u2019s a lot of things you go back and think about like, \u2018Man, if that had turned out different.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a championship and three runners-up in this (elimination) format, I feel like that\u2019s really good. I\u2019m proud of what I\u2019ve done. I feel like I gave it everything I had, and I feel I\u2019m really, really good at what I did, so I\u2019m happy with that\u2014I\u2019m content.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service  NEWTON, Iowa \u2014 Martin Truex Jr. felt it was time to regain control over his own life and his own schedule. \u201cI\u2019m obviously here to let y\u2019all know that I won\u2019t be back full-time next year,\u201d Truex said Friday in a press conference with team owner Joe Gibbs, confirming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":41441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[244,16],"class_list":["post-46689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-1462849132-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-c93","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46689"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46693,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46689\/revisions\/46693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}