Joe Gibbs Racing superstar Martin Truex Jr. is set to retire from full-time Cup racing at the end of the season. A 34-time winner and the 2017 champion, he has been winless since New Hampshire last summer. With 14 more races remaining in his career will be able to reach victory lane once more before it’s too late? Should he, he will only be the sixth driver to win in his final season.
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Five drivers, each of them a Hall of Famer, a champion, or both, have been victorious in their final full-time seasons. The first of them is Kurt Busch. The 2004 Cup Series champion raced his final laps in 2022 for 23XI Racing. His last victory came that year at Kansas. However, he never got to finish all 36 races after suffering an injury at Pocono.
Roush Fenway Racing loyalist Carl Edwards retired as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver in 2016. He holds 28 victory lane visits in his career and the last three of them came in his final season. The Texas 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway is where he hoisted the victory flag for the last time. Alabama Gang member Davey Allison was one other driver who won a race in his final full-time season.
Allison passed away in 1993 caught in a helicopter crash at Talladega. But this wasn’t before he won at Richmond Raceway earlier that year. He won 19 races throughout his career. That brings us to Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart who round off the five-driver list that Truex Jr. could be a part of. Gordon’s last full-time season was in 2015.
A four-time Cup Series champion, he had 93 victories in his esteemed career. His last victory was at Martinsville and he finished that season in third place. Stewart, on the other hand, spent his final year with Stewart-Haas Racing, a team he co-owns. He raced full-time for the last time in 2016 and secured the last of his 49 wins at the Sonoma Raceway.
Truex Jr.’s winless streak now spans 38 races. His next opportunity to end this dry run will be at Richmond. He narrowly missed out on victory at this track last time after a gray final-lap move from his teammate Denny Hamlin. He will hope to avoid such snags this time and close his season on a high. A win at this stage would also help him secure his playoff spot.
