Truex trails off into retirement from full-time racing

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Martin Truex Jr. had one last hurrah before trailing off into retirement from full-time racing after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.

Before the race, Truex received a standing ovation in the driver’s meeting. His dad, Martin Truex Sr., looked on as his son jumped in for 312 laps.

Martin Truex Jr. saw both ends of the grid, at first running pace laps to be saluted — but then moving up to where he qualified for the race.

Truex started on the pole and led the first nine laps before falling behind eventual stage winner Joey Logano. As “19”s filled the pylon on lap 19, Truex held on to second.

“It’s a huge honor. I’m very honored, very humbled to be recognized like that,” he said.

Truex finished second in stage one, which ended on lap 60 of 312.

Even after a bad pit stop during the stage break dropped him to the back-half of the top-10, Truex held on to claim ninth in stage two, which ended on lap 185. He settled in there for the final stage until a caution came out for Zane Smith spinning and hitting the wall on lap 251. While that trapped Truex a lap down, he took the wavearound to get back on the lead lap, albeit with older tires.

Truex struggled on the lap 259 restart and quickly dropped outside of the top-10. With 25 to go, he was as low as 18th — his lowest position all day — but claimed a 17th-place finish after a pass on Carson Hocevar.

“Early on it was going to be a good day and then it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. [Our speed] largely died, just the more we tried to do to the car. Lately, we’ve qualified good and then the more rubber goes down, we struggle. So I don’t know what we got going on there but I wish we could have put some tires on at the end to at least and had a shot to go forward. It wasn’t much fun at the end running on older tires,” Truex said.

Despite the disappointment, there was still honor.

The likes of Jeff Gordon and Tyler Reddick and others, like brother Ryan Truex, all came over to commend Martin Truex Jr. on a great career.

“No second thoughts,” Truex Jr. said. “I’ve come to celebrate this and I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

Martin Truex Jr. earned five Top-5 finishes, 11 Top-10s and a 10th-place points finish — his seventh Top-10 points finish in his career — this season.

In all, Truex ended his full-time career at 34 wins, 147 Top-5 finishes, 291 Top-10s, 25 poles and 12,747 laps led (17th all-time) in 693 starts. In 19 full-time seasons in the Cup Series, he made 11 playoff appearances and took home the 2017 championship.

Truex will hand the reigns of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE to Chase Briscoe, who will drive the car full-time in 2025.

Sunday won’t be the end for the Truex, however. He is looking at running the Daytona 500 and starting some NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with Joe Gibbs Racing next year.