By David Morgan, Associate Editor
AVONDALE, Ariz. – The storybook ending is starting to be written.
Martin Truex, Jr. will lead the field to green on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway after scoring the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series championship race, as he looks to ride off into the sunset in the best fashion in his final start as a full-time Cup Series driver.
With his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota dressed in a paint scheme resembling the same one he drove in his first career start in 2004, Truex put up a lap of 26.718 seconds, 134.741 mph, around the one-mile Phoenix oval to capture the 24th pole of his career.
Sunday’s front row start will bring a 19-year career of racing full-time at NASCAR’s highest level to a close and cement a career that has included marquee wins and championships not only in the Cup Series, but in other levels of the sport as well.
After banking back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series championships with Chance 2 Motorsports, an early iteration of the Dale Earnhardt Jr. owned JR Motorsports team that still competes in the series, Truex took the step up to the Cup Series full-time in 2006 with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and would score his first win a year later.
Truex would move on to a tumultuous stint with Michael Waltrip Racing in 2010, only scoring one win in his four years with the team. But when he took the jump to Barney Visser’s outlier team, Furniture Row Racing, in 2014, his career was sent to a whole new level.
Teaming up with crew chief Cole Pearn in 2015, the trajectory of Truex’s career was on a steady rise from that point on.
A career-best season in 2017, in which he and Pearn scored eight wins together, culminated in his first Cup Series championship and the two combined for four more wins the following season when Furniture Row closed its doors at the end of that year.
In 2019, Truex and Pearn moved over to Joe Gibbs Racing together and picked right back up where they left off, winning seven races that season and finishing as the runner-up in the championship before Pearn retired from his crew chief role at season’s end.
With new crew chief James Small coming on board in 2020, Truex has continued his winning ways, scoring eight wins in the years since. To date, Truex’s resume shows 34 wins in 692 total starts, including marquee wins like the Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600.
On Sunday, his 693rd career start will be his final chance to bank a win this season before moving on to the next stage of his life.
True to form, Truex isn’t letting the emotion of making his final start stray him from the task at hand and finishing the day in victory lane.
“I think I’m focused on what we’re doing, and I think if anything it will all come afterwards,” Truex said of the impending emotions on Sunday.
“As a driver, you’re trained to put the blinders on, right? And not worry about outside distractions and emotions and all the things that could potentially derail what you’re trying to do on the weekend or on the race day. I think if anything, it probably not really set in until after.”
Remarking on his career, Truex noted that he is proud of the staying power he has been able to have in the series, even with all the ups and downs he has been through over the years.
“Being able to be around in the Cup Series and in this garage as long as I have. The way it started and the way it ended are two completely different stories I think. Just the perseverance I think. The hard work and how none of it came easy,” Truex said.
“My success in the Cup Series was certainly very, very difficult to achieve and so I’m very proud of that. But, I’m also very thankful for the opportunities and the people I’ve gotten to work with. Just feel really grateful and lucky to be able to do what I did and have the success that we did.”
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