Quiet Phoenix Finale Caps Truex’s Full-Time NASCAR Career

AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the sun set in the desert Sunday evening at Phoenix Raceway, it also set on a remarkable 20-year full-time career for NASCAR Cup Series veteran Martin Truex Jr.

After capturing the pole Saturday during qualifying, the 43-year-old led the first nine laps of the Cup Series finale before fading in the second half and finishing 17th.

Although the result was far from what Truex and his No. 19 team wanted, Sunday was more about taking in and appreciating each moment one more time.

“I wanted it to go better than that. We were pretty good early and then lost track position and then the track just continued to rubber up and get hotter,” said Truex after the race. “At least that’s what I felt like it was doing. I kept losing grip. I kept losing more balance. I just lost track position.

“It just all magnifies with this [Next Gen car].”

Truex battled around the top 15 during the final stage, but simply didn’t have the car to get a breakthrough win to close the season.

“We got caught by the last caution there and had to stay out on old tires and get the wave around and we couldn’t even race to try to go forward. It was just not a good day,” he added. “I’m proud of the effort of my team. At least we got to lead a few laps at the beginning.”

Regardless of the Phoenix result, Truex’s career arc is one of perseverance and beating the odds. He got his first shot in 2004 with Dale Earnhardt Inc. at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, and appropriately carried a paint scheme Sunday that threw back to those early Bass Pro Shops colors.

After competing on a part-time basis for two years while also racing in what was then the NASCAR Busch (now Xfinity) he landed a full-time Cup Series ride with DEI in 2006, coming off of back-to-back championships at NASCAR’s second-highest level.

A year into his full-time Cup Series career, Truex broke through with his first win at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, dominating by leading 216 laps. Yet, from 2007 to 2012, Truex went through hard times.

He moved to Michael Waltrip Racing during that stretch, but failed to get to victory lane until a Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway win in June of 2013 that jump-started his career again.

Truex then called a career audible and joined Denver, Colo.-based Furniture Row Racing ahead of the 2014 season. It took until 2015 at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway to grab his first win with his new organization, but that led to a career high 22 top-fives that season in a breakout surge.

He made it all the way to the Championship 4 that year. His career was revived, and he was just reaching his prime. After Furniture Row formed an alliance with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing in 2016, Truex took his performance to another level, with four wins and five poles. By then, he was nearly on top of the world.

The pinnacle came when Truex won eight races and captured the 2017 Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, a moment forever engraved in NASCAR history.

In 2018 he won Furniture Row’s final race as an organization at Kentucky Speedway, before the team closed its doors at the end of that season. Truex had 17 wins with the organization over a five-year period.

What followed was a 2019 campaign where he and crew chief Cole Pearn won seven races in their first year after moving to Joe Gibbs Racing. However, from there Pearn decided to step away from atop the pit box, but not before the duo had accumulated 24 wins and that 2017 title together.

A new decade in 2020 brought with it new beginnings. James Small joined Truex as the crew chief who would remain with him for the rest of his full-time career. They nabbed a Martinsville win in June during the COVID-19 pandemic, before 2021 produced four wins and a fifth consecutive Championship 4 appearance for Truex.

After scarce results in the 2022 season, the following season the Mayetta, N.J., native rebounded. He won the regular season championship in 2023 through consistency and speed, winning at Dover, Sonoma, and his home track of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which marked the 34th and final win of his Cup Series career.

That total put him in the top 30 of the all-time premier series win list, and combined with his three total NASCAR championships, arguably makes him a first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Famer when the time comes.

In short, Truex went from rags to riches at the top echelon of stock car racing. Over a six year stretch it was bad luck that followed him and an uncertain future that haunted him more than once. But he stayed the course, stayed in the fight, and finished the battle showing he still had what it took to compete.

Truex ends his full-time career with a Cup Series championship, 34 wins, two Coca-Cola 600 rings, a Southern 500 trophy, 25 poles, more than 12,000 laps led and two Xfinity Series championships.

After his final race in Phoenix, he received congratulations and gratitude from the racing industry at large, but also from the likes of NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon and Michael Jordan, the NBA legend-turned co-owner of 23XI Racing.

“It means a lot to have the respect of guys like that and what they mean to the sport. Absolute legends, right? It makes me feel good that I’ve earned that respect over the years, and it means a lot,” said Truex. “From here forward, I’m just going to go have some fun and do a little bit of racing here and there just for fun. Hopefully, it will be less stressful than days like today.”

And as he walked out of the one-mile desert oval Sunday night, Truex did so quietly and unassumingly, in the same style that was a hallmark of his lengthy career.

Truex plans to attempt the 2025 Daytona 500 with his former crew chief Pearn at 23XI Racing. In addition to the Great American Race in February, he is interested in running select events in both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series.

But first comes an offseason of fishing, relaxation, and decompression with the knowledge that his days of racing 38 weeks a year have finally wound to their end.

Broadcast coverage of the kickoff to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the 67th annual Daytona 500, is slated for Feb. 16, 2025, on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

A specific start time for the Great American Race will be announced during the offseason.