Will Sunday’s NASCAR road course race in Mexico City be Ryan Truex’s big career revival or Joe Gibbs Racing’s big mistake? That’s what’s on the line as Truex — the younger brother of now-retired former JGR driver Martin Truex Jr. — will replace Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota as Hamlin celebrates Wednesday’s birth of his third child and first son.
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Hamlin wisely chose not to travel internationally, avoiding any potential health risks that could impact his newborn at home. But will the opportunity give the younger Truex a reality check on the track?
JGR picking the younger Truex is a real head scratcher. He has not raced a Cup car since 2014. That’s 11 years ago — an eternity in racing, especially with respect to the nuances in Cup cars from year to year.
Couldn’t JGR have made a play to bring MTJ back for one last ride — especially for a race where experience is vital? If I was Joe Gibbs, I’d even have thought about bringing any number of drivers out of retirement to replace Hamlin like Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards or Dale Jarrett. Heck, even Michael Waltrip would be a better man for the job than Ryan Truex.
Truex has logged limited time in recent years in NASCAR’s junior league, the Xfinity Series. Since 2022, he’s made just 24 starts out of 113 races in that period. Although, to be fair, three of those starts ended in one-off wins. But still, an Xfinity Series car is nowhere near comparable to a Next Gen Cup car — not even close.
And how much time will Truex have behind the wheel this weekend before he takes the green flag on Sunday? A grand total of just 75 minutes of practice over two sessions on Friday, then a couple of laps of qualifying on Saturday, followed by the race on Sunday.
There’s little chance that Truex can get up to speed, literally and figuratively. I just hope someone reminds him that he’ll have to turn left and right. That’s why, as much as I hate to predict this, if the younger Truex makes it past the first 10 laps of Sunday’s race — or even just five — it’ll be a miracle. Even making it through the opening lap cleanly could be a challenge.
And while everyone will likely be focusing on Carson Hocevar, who has become NASCAR’s second-least popular villain of late behind Hamlin, they better start focusing on Truex instead.
Sure, Truex was hired in January to be JGR’s “reserve driver,” to fill in gaps in either the Cup or Xfinity ranks, if and when needed. Since his January hiring, he’s logged just one race — in the Xfinity Series. And it wasn’t even for JGR! He raced in the season-opening Xfinity race at Daytona for Sam Hunt’s team and finished 17th.
Sam Hunt Racing might not be a household name, but it’s been a fixture in the Xfinity ranks. According to Racing-Reference.info, Hunt-owned teams have made 200 Xfinity starts — and hasn’t won even once. That’s a 0.000 batting average.
And let’s quantify Truex’s 17th place showing at Daytona in February: A total of 38 drivers started the race and only 21 finished the wreck-fest. That means Truex finished four spots from the bottom of those drivers that completed the event. That’s not a good look whatsoever.
Seriously, how can JGR, which is one of the smartest and most successful organizations in NASCAR, legitimately turn over one of its most successful race cars — with which Hamlin has won three races already this year and 57 in his lengthy career — to someone so far removed from the sport’s top level? It’s outright baffling.
If Truex does have a poor showing on Sunday, it could raise even more questions about his racing credentials. Hopefully for him, the gamble pays off and outweighs the lack of experience.
