For 21 years, Martin Truex Jr. has raced in NASCAR every single weekend. Traveling across the country to race tracks, battling wins and losses, and dealing with personal tragedies, the man has braved through the storm all the way. His watch comes to an end after the upcoming season finale in Phoenix. It will be his last Cup Series race as a full-time driver.
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Although retirement is a decision that he took of his own accord, there are a few things that he will terribly miss and a few other things that he won’t miss so much about the sport. Talking about the latter to The Athletic in a recent interview, he mentioned that he can’t wait to stop traveling all the time.
Notably, he’d already cited earlier this year that the extensive schedule was one of the primary reasons for him hanging up the boots. He said this time,
“The traveling, just every Thursday getting ready to go. It’s just nonstop. It’s a grind, and it’ll be nice to just not have my schedule printed out for me a year in advance.”
Does this mean he will be completely rid of the pressures of racing? No.
He will still be racing occasionally, but that will be on his terms. The veteran already has his post-retirement plans for Sundays slightly thought out too. He added, “I’m not sure. Hunt and fish. Enjoy life. I’m sure I’ll watch some racing still, probably won’t be as closely interested in it as I am now. But I don’t know. We’ll see. Time will tell.”
What will Truex Jr. miss the most about racing in NASCAR?
Naturally, he must’ve picked up certain habits in his time on the track that can be hard to get rid of. The most addictive of them for him is the bond that he has with his crew and teammates. He noted,
“The relationships are really what you take from here and things that will go on for years to come. You get to keep the trophies, and you get to go back and look at videos and all the stats and all the things — they’re always there to see. But you miss the people, just seeing all the guys at the track every weekend.”
Truex Jr. has created plenty of relationships with people across multiple teams over the past two decades. He has driven for five different outfits in the Cup Series alone. However, he can take peace from the fact that he is still going to be around them at least for the near future.
For instance, he will be racing in the 2025 Daytona 500 for 23XI Racing and that’s bound to put him on the same table with his current teammate Denny Hamlin. So, Truex Jr. hasn’t run out of road yet. Not technically at least.
