After 21 years, 674 races, 34 wins, 146 top-5s and 287 top-10s, 23 pole positions and 12,639 laps led in the Cup series, one Cup series championship and two Xfinity (then Busch) Series championships, Martin Truex will bid farewell to full-time Cup racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season.
His career is one with many highs and lows, and looked to be on life support on multiple occasions early on. Despite winning two Busch Series titles driving for Dale Jr.’s Chance 2 Motorsports, he did not find consistent success in his early years with Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Michael Waltrip Racing, and after a decade in the sport he had only notched 2 victories.
Furniture Row miracle
Truex’s rise began at Furniture Row Racing, the now-defunct “little team that could” based out of Colorado owned by Barney Visser that took Truex in starting in 2014 (in the wake of the disastrous “spingate” incident that Truex was a part of in 2013, a PR nightmare that left him looking for a ride). This one-car team was not likely to be a path to winning races and competing for championships. But that’s exactly what happened.
Truex won 17 races in his five years at Furniture Row, including 8 wins during his Cup championship-winning season in 2017. The scenes of that championship race and Truex’s celebration with longtime partner Sherry Pollex (RIP) are some of the most emotional and memorable in recent NASCAR history. This one-car team had stunned the field to win the title and slayed all the giant three- and four-car battalions.
Strong finish at Gibbs
After his time with the Furniture Row team came to a conclusion when the team sadly closed its doors at the end of 2018, Truex then moved on to powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing, where he has continued to rack up wins (15 in total under the JGR banner).
Perhaps the most telling stat on Truex: Between 2017 and 2021 he not only won the lone Cup title, but also finished 2nd in points 3 different times. If a few small things change in those championship races, we could be talking about a multiple-time series champion.
So what’s the lesson from Truex’s career? He’s proof that a talented driver will eventually deliver if given the right equipment. The talent was always there, but the circumstances were not always in his favor at the teams where he drove.
Despite a decade of mostly struggling as a mid-tier performer in the Cup series, nowhere near showing championship caliber, a little team from Colorado showed faith in him, and together they shocked the world.
Other drivers have had late-career resurgences. Michael Waltrip comes to mind, for example. But none have taken that opportunity and made the most out of it as well as Martin Truex did. If you went back in time to 2014 and told a 34-year-old Truex that he would retire in a decade with 34 wins, he would have told you to get your head examined.
But it happened, and it’s a great story with a Hall of Fame spot likely awaiting Truex down the road. And don’t lock in those career stats just yet: He very well could knock out a few more wins and contend for one more title before he transitions to part-time in 2025.
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