Truex agreed to a one-year extension to return to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota for the 2024 season and is now on a “year-to-year” foundation in terms of evaluating how lengthy he’ll stay a full-time driver.
The 43-year-old native of Mayetta, N.J., has had a Corridor of Fame-worthy profession that includes one Cup championship, two Xfinity Collection titles and 34 Cup wins, together with wins within the Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600.
The one evident omission from his stellar resume – a win at certainly one of NASCAR’s superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega, and specifically the Daytona 500.
Truex has come excruciatingly shut, nonetheless.
Within the 2016 Daytona 500, Truex JGR teammate Denny Hamlin to the checkered flag, narrowly lacking out on the victory by a scant .01 of a second.
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota beats Martin Truex Jr., Furnishings Row Racing Toyota to the checkered flag
Photograph by: Motion Sports activities Pictures
“I need to win the Daytona 500, it could be nice, clearly,” Truex mentioned. “Daytona has been a troublesome one for us. We’ve been second there earlier than and although we had it received again in 2016, we simply obtained beat out by a number of inches by Denny.
“I don’t know if I’d be fully disillusioned with my profession as a complete if, sometime once I retire, I look again and I’m like, ‘Ah, I didn’t win that race.’ I don’t know if that could be a huge deal to me or not.
“I nonetheless have alternatives to get it completed, so I strive not to consider it. Nevertheless it’d be big to win, that’s for certain.”
One of the tough points of the five hundred for a driver is that whereas the race is maybe probably the most coveted to win, it can be probably the most tough to acquire.
Due to the drafting and tight pack racing that dominates the race, drivers typically make strikes with assist from others, or can get simply caught up within the aftermath of another person’s mistake.
“A large-open crapshoot”
The 2024 season marks Truex’s twentieth in Cup. Of his 657 begins, 37 of them have come on Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval, the place he has three top-five and 6 top-10 finishes.
“Daytona is a wide-open crapshoot,” mentioned Truex, final yr’s common season Cup champion. “Everybody holds it extensive open. You get right down to the top of the race and we’ve seen the crashes time and again on the green-white-checkereds.
“Everybody simply holds it extensive open and, if they’ve any momentum in any respect, they simply attempt to drive via the man in entrance of them and it spins him out and crashes him. It’s actually only a wild card, it’s sort of loopy.
“I wouldn’t say I’m not unconformable there, nevertheless it sort of stinks to get right down to the top, when you make it that far, to simply get crashed.”
Truex says he isn’t certain how a 500 victory would even really feel, or change the outlook on his NASCAR profession, however he’s anxious to search out out.
“You return and watch guys who’ve received that race for the primary time, whether or not they’ve received quite a bit and received championships or received it early on of their profession, you simply see the joy and the way a lot it means,” he mentioned.
“I don’t assume it’s one thing you’ll be able to perceive till you may make it occur your self.”
