Martin Truex Jr. insists he is “still not sad” over NASCAR retirement despite everyone wanting him to be
Soon to be ex-JGR driver Martin Truex Jr. has shared his feelings about his last race in the sport as a full-time driver.
Martin Truex Jr. (Via IMAGO)
The NASCAR season finale at Phoenix marked the end of an era with Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Martin Truex Jr. retiring from full-time racing. The NASCAR community shared their love and respect for the 2017 Cup champion at Phoenix before and after the season finale, with the highlight being all the drivers giving him a standing ovation.
Most of the garage is emotional over the veteran racer’s retirement, as he was one of the most respected racers of the 21st century. But Martin Truex Jr. isn’t sad about this chapter of his life coming to an end and he is celebrating the final moments. He is enjoying the time with his team and is looking forward to having more fun in the future.
Still not sad. Everybody wants me to be sad [and] I’m happy. I’m celebrating. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be proud of. I’m going to enjoy some time off here and do the banquet and all that fun stuff, and it’s going to be fun to come back in a different role and race for fun.
Martin Truex Jr. said via RACER.
The No:19 Toyota driver while talking about his finale race with the team admitted that it didn’t go as planned as he finished outside ethe top-10 after starting on pole. He is hoping to bounce back and have fun in the 2025 Daytona 500, as a part-time driver.
Hopefully I’ll be able to have fun. It’s so hard to have fun when you take it this seriously, and I was having fun early today, and then it got miserable. I was hoping today would go better so it’d be more fun. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to Daytona.
Martin Truex Jr. added.
Martin Truex Jr.’s crew chief is frustrated with the race result
While talking about the No:19 teams’ performance, Martin Truex Jr.’s crew chief James Small admitted that it didn’t go as paned for them. He is really disappointed with how the race played out for them, despite having a strong start.
It started off well. We contended to win the first stage, and then we lost a lot of track positions there, and everything got worse. Through the middle of the second stage we started to have some brake issues and that just created handling problems. …It started off so promising – yesterday was great. It’s a frustrating way to end. It kind of sums up our season the way it unraveled there.
James Small said.
The JGR team is really downbeat on themselves as they couldn’t help MTJ win a race in his last year in the sport as a full-time driver. It would be interesting to see how the racer will go on about his career as a part-time driver.
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