Martin Truex Jr. Looks To Turn Around Playoff Before Retirement
Joseph Wolkin is a reporter who covers Nascar
NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart
Martin Truex Jr, driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners [+]Insurance Toyota, waves to fans as he walks onstage during driver intros prior to the Nascar Cup Series Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 08, 2024 in Hampton, Georgia.
As Martin Truex Jr. prepares to end his full-time Nascar Cup Series career, the 2017 champion is attempting to go out on top. While Truex has had several opportunities to drive his No. 19 Toyota into victory lane in 2024, he’s come up short.
Now, as the playoffs have begun, Truex and his Joe Gibbs Racing squad are looking to reheat the fire they had to start the season. Truex led more than 50 laps in three of the first seven races, including 228 laps led at Bristol.
The flame continued to spark inside of the No. 19 team. Meanwhile, rumors were out and about as no one knew if he would return to the driver’s seat in 2025. Eventually, Truex announced he was retiring from full-time competition at the end of the 2024 season.
Ever since — certainly not because of the announcement and he’s not just riding into the sunset — Truex has struggled. He went from second in the regular season after 14 races to 10th when the regular season ended.
But the playoffs got off to a rocky start after he crashed at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Now, he sits 15th on the playoff grid and enters Watkins Glen Internation 19 points behind teammate Ty Gibbs, who currently holds the 12th and final spot to advance into the next round.
While Truex has showed speed throughout the year, his summer slump is unprecedented for the New Jersey native. He only hastwo top 10s since May.
However, the spark is still there and Truex is not one to give up. There are plenty of opportunities in the final nine races for Truex to find the winner’s circle one last time.
Among them are Watkins Glen (2017 winner), Bristol, where he finished second earlier in the year, Kansas, where he led 79 laps, and more. Even though Truex is cold at the moment, what makes this 44-year-old a future Hall of Famer is the fact that he can get hot at any time.
Of course, this will not be the last we will see of Truex, who will run a part-time schedule in 2025.