“I dodged a big bullet,” Martin Truex jokes about how retiring in 2023 could’ve ruined his first-ballot Hall of Fame hopes
Martin Truex Jr. is now the oldest active Cup driver on the garage.
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Martin Truex Jr. at sonoma (Credts: @DennyDelivers/Twiitter)
Following the retirement of the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, the 2017 Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. is now the most senior driver on the grid. He has been flirting with potential retirement since 2022. The JGR driver was all set to retire at the end of 2022, But Joe Gibbs was able to convince him to stay at the team for one more season.
Midway to the impressive 2023 season, which saw him winning the regular season championship, Truex Jr. extended his deal with JGR for another year. Going into 2024, unlike in the last years the veteran is more confused about what to do with his future and has confirmed that the fans would‘ve had to wait till the end stages of the season to get a concrete answer on what’s ahead.
Recently, while talking about a potential retirement, Truex Jr. passed a joke that to a certain extent the truth. If he had retired in 2023 like Harvick, both would have been eligible for NASCAR Hall of Fame entry in the same time (three years) and there is a huge possibility that only one of them would get the entry. Truex also jokes about not retiring the same year as his teammate Denny Hamlin, a driver of similar caliber.
I figure I dodged a big bullet with Harvick going already, so he’ll get in his first try, right? So I would imagine that I just have to make sure me and Denny don’t retire at the same time. It’s crazy to think about. It’s wild.Truex Junior told to NASCAR.com.
Martin Truex Jr. is still chasing his maiden Daytona 500 win
The Toyota legend has won over 34 races in his career, but there is one race that he has yet to win. Despite making over 20 starts in the most prestigious Superspeedway race in the world, he hasn’t won it a single time and his best finish at the race was a P2 from 2016.
He is part of an elite list of championship-winning drivers not to win the 500-mile event. Alongside Truex in the list are his former teammate and two-time champion Kyle Busch and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski are the two veterans in the list.
They are joined by young driver Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and the reigning champion Ryan Blaney. Going into the 2024 edition of the race, fans would expect to see one of those drivers end their winless run.
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