Martin Truex Jr. retiring after 2024 season

Martin Truex Jr. plans to retire from Cup racing after the 2024 season, concluding a career highlighted by the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series championship and currently 34 Cup wins.

The Athletic first reported his decision on Thursday afternoon, and FOX Sports confirmed it through sources familiar with the matter. Truex is expected to announce his retirement on Friday during his scheduled media availability at Iowa Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing declined to comment.

Truex, who turns 44 later this month, has been a full-time Cup competitor since 2006, with 32 of his wins occurring since 2015. Although winless so far in 2024, he is fifth in the overall Cup standings, setting the stage for a final season likely to secure his place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

In recent years, Truex has signed a series of one-year contracts and has openly struggled with the retirement decision annually. Joe Gibbs Racing pressed for an answer due to several drivers being out of contract for 2025 and the risk of missing out on potential replacements.

Chase Briscoe, currently with Stewart-Haas Racing and available after SHR announced its closure at the end of the season, is the leading candidate to replace Truex. Briscoe has one career win in 124 Cup starts and sits 17th in the current standings, with nine Xfinity Series wins in a standout 2020 season.

Truex began his rise with back-to-back Xfinity Series titles in 2004-05 for Chance 2 Motorsports, the precursor to JR Motorsports. He subsequently moved to the Cup Series with Dale Earnhardt Inc., which later merged with Chip Ganassi Racing. He seemed to have found stability at Michael Waltrip Racing until the 2013 race manipulation scandal at Richmond cost the team his sponsorship.

This was a turning point, leading Truex to join Furniture Row Racing in 2014, where he won a Cup title in 2017. After the team’s closure in 2018, he has spent the last six years with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Throughout his career, Truex has amassed 146 top-5 finishes in 673 Cup starts.

Photo by Vanessa Markov