LOUDON, New Hampshire — Martin Truex Jr. is in the middle of yet another impressive season in the NASCAR Cup Series, but seems to have the specter of an uncertain future beyond 2023 hanging over him.
Speaking to the media, the 43-year-old former NASCAR champion was asked if he’s considering retirement after this season. While Truex quickly dismissed the question, he did admit that he acknowledge that he’s unsure if he’ll be with Joe Gibbs Racing next year.
“Probably more so their timeline than mine,” the merican professional racing driver said of the impending decision, via Tribune-Review Sports.
Truex also said that he sometimes thinks about his future but not while he’s at the racetrack. He said he hasn’t yet made a decision on his racing plans for 2024.
“I think about it a lot during the week but not at the racetrack,” Truex said. “That’s why I don’t really talk about it much. I haven’t made a decision yet, so no need to talk about it.”
Martin Truex Jr. has been dominant since he started driving his Toyota back in 2016. In the past eight seasons he has finished top two four times and won the whole thing in 2017.
Truex has floated retirement before, only to be coaxed back to return for another year in the No. 19 Toyota. Truex is having fun again at the track and has two wins after he missed the playoffs last season.
Truex cracked “next question” when asked about retirement but conceded an announcement must be made soon, maybe even this week.
Is that his timeline to make crucial decisions on the driver, sponsorship and potentially a new team to put in place for 2024 should Truex retire.
“Probably more so their timeline than mine,” Truex said.
Truex announced last June that he would return for a 19th season, so discussions for a potential replacement never got far with team owner Joe Gibbs.
Without a top-tier free agent available at the end of this season, the team would likely look to Xfinity Series drivers John Hunter Nemechek or Sammy Smith to complete the four-car group.
The team promoted Ty Gibbs this season to take Kyle Busch´s spot after he left to drive for Richard Childress.
“I think about it a lot during the week but not at the racetrack,” Truex said. “That´s why I don´t really talk about it much. I haven´t made a decision yet, so no need to talk about it.”
He opened the season with a win in the exhibition Busch Light Clash and has since won at Dover and Sonoma. Truex did everything but win last season, which was his downfall. He ran inside the top-10 in the standings through the entire regular season, only to miss a spot in the playoffs because NASCAR had a record-tying 19 different winners last season.
Truex is primed to end this season in championship contention — and maybe go out a winner.
With heavy rain in the forecast, New Hampshire could mark the third straight race shortened by weather.
William Byron won last week at Atlanta in a race sliced by 75 laps. Shane van Gisbergen won his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Chicago in a race called because of fading sunlight.
“I think if we start a race in the rain, we need to have a time limit or something,” 2014 NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick said. “The rain laps are so much slower and it just winds up taking all day.”
Aric Almirola won a 2021 race at New Hampshire delayed by rain and shortened by eight laps because of darkness..
“I think you kind of saw maybe a little bit of rain factor last week in the racing at Atlanta, where guys were really pushing because they knew the rain was coming so they wanted to be up front, so the aggression was high,” two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch said.
“But besides that, race distance, race length, I think if you can find a happy spot with a TV window, then just stick to that.”
Ross Chastain celebrates each victory with a watermelon smash, in tribute to his family watermelon farm in Florida. He can crush some beers, too, now that Busch Light will serve as his primary sponsor starting next season.
Chastain already attended beer school and learned it´s much tastier to drink a cold beer out of a pint glass rather than the can.
Anheuser-Busch and Trackhouse Racing announced a multiyear agreement that connects one of NASCAR´s four premier partners with one of Cup´s most polarizing drivers. Chastain developed an aggressive driving style that repeatedly rubbed other drivers the wrong way.
Might be a pretty good fit for a race day beer-drinking fan.
Discussion about this post