Martin Truex Jr. earlier this year announced that he would retire from the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2025 season. He is all set to be replaced by Chase Briscoe at Joe Gibbs Racing.
After having a career for over two decades, Martin Truex Jr. hung up his boots
After having a career that spans almost two decades, Martin Truex Jr. will retire from the Cup Series. Truex Jr. won the championship only once in his career and it was back in 2017. On top of it, Truex Jr. has been a competitive driver on the track as well.
Chase Briscoe will join Joe Gibbs Racing
The Stewart-Haas Racing team will stop working at the end of the 2024 season and Chase Briscoe will be joining Joe Gibbs Racing. He will be driving the #19 Toyota. Briscoe made his debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021 for Stewart-Haas Racing and since then, he has two wins to his name.
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The team's driver faced a certain uncertainty over their career as they heard the news that the Stewart-Haas Racing team would stop working. However, leaving just one driver in the form of Ryan Preece, every other driver for the SHR team has secured a contract with the other teams for the 2025 season.
The owner of Joe Gibbs Racing team Joe Gibbs was ecstatic and expressed his excitement as Chase Briscoe joins the team. Gibbs said, "I think what really hit all of us besides Chase [Briscoe] and his background, you go back and look at Xfinity races that year and you see some of the other things he's done. He's already won a cup. But the thing when you hear him sit and talk about his background. And the sacrifices that he made to race I think that hit Johnny. I think his story and the way he sacrificed to do what he does was really impressive. I know it impressed Johnny and JP. And it did me."
"But also we have to win and so we came down to the end. We think Chase can win. And so that's where we are and it's uh thrill for us," Gibbs added.
Martin Truex Jr. takes the blame after playoffs disqualification at Bristol
The goal for entering another season of the NASCAR Cup Series for Martin Truex Jr. was to go for another championship but that wasn't the case as his playoff run came to an end after the Bristol Motor Speedway. The 44-year-old was handed a penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by just over a mile per hour.
Due to this, he had to drop to the back of the pack and it didn't help his cause of gaining positions and points. Thus, he had to be eliminated from the playoffs. After the race, Truex said, "It's really tough when it's 0.09mph. That kind of screws your whole chance at a good season up. I don't know how that happened. I didn't even know I was that close, honestly. I felt like I did the same thing as every other stop."
"It's on me, obviously. My mistake. They said that we were going to have to run second or third there to have a chance and I don't know if we could have done it, but it would have been nice to see. Just really sad for my guys," Truex concluded.
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