By Randy Covitz, Special to Kickin’ the Tires
Martin Truex Jr. may have a difficult time saying goodbye to Kansas Speedway this weekend.
Truex, who is retiring from full-time NASCAR racing at the end of this season, holds the distinction of being the only driver to sweep both Cup races in one season at Kansas Speedway when his two wins in 2017 propelled him to his only Cup championship.
In fact, he dominated the field like no other driver. He led 104 of the 267 laps in the spring race, and starting on the pole in the fall race, he led 91 laps and breezed to victory by 2.28 seconds over second-place Kyle Busch.
“The mile-and-a-half tracks were a big part of our success that championship season,” said Truex, whose eight wins in 2017 included seven 1.5-mile tracks like Kansas. “I felt like every time we showed up at one of the bigger tracks, we had a shot to win. We had had some heartbreakers at Kansas the two years before, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, are we ever going to be able to close the deal and win there?’
“To be able to do it in dominating fashion in both races was really cool. The one race we actually got a penalty at the start and had to go to the rear and drove through the field and take that win. We had amazing cars and an amazing team that year, especially on the bigger tracks like Kansas.”
Making the 2017 season even more gratifying for Truex is he won the championship while competing for the modestly funded, one-car Furniture Row team based in Denver, far from the multi-car, powerhouse organizations in the Charlotte area.
“The whole time with that team was really something special; the things we were able to accomplish and doing it our own way differently than everyone else,” said Truex, who moved to Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota in 2018. “2017 was certainly the highlight of my career.”
Truex, 44, was eliminated from the Cup playoffs last week at Bristol and enters Sunday’s Hollywood Casino with 34 career Cup wins and 13 Xfinity victories, including the 2004 and 2005 Xfinity series championships.
Though Truex has yet to win a race this season, he said his decision to retire was not performance-related.
“I just felt like the right time for me,” said Truex, who finished a strong fourth in the May race at Kansas. “Honestly, I’ve thought about it a lot the past few seasons and just waited for that feeling in my mind to be positive, like this is okay, I’m good, I want to do something else. Yeah, something just felt different this year for me. I felt like it was time to slow down and do something else. It’s been a great ride.
“We’ve had some disappointments this year, for sure, but it’s not enough to make you stop doing what you want to do. “Totally not related to performance in any way, shape or form.”
Truex may be is retiring from full-time racing, but he hasn’t ruled out appearing in certain events, and plans are in the works for him to race in next year’s Daytona 500 for Denny Hamlin’s 23XI team and selected Xfinity races. But Truex, a native of Mayetta, N.J., believes the time was right to step aside, despite Joe Gibbs’ attempts to talk him into at least another year.
“Coach Gibbs has been amazing through all of this,” Truex said. “It’s just being on my side and wanting me to do what I want to do. It’s tough to feel like you’re letting people down, but at the same time I feel like I’ve got a great relationship with everyone on our team – all of our guys on the 19 especially. But Coach has been awesome helping me work through it. He would always make me a list of pros and cons and his list of pros was always longer than mine.”
During his 23 years in NASCAR, Truex earned the respect of his fellow competitors for his humility and reputation as a clean racer.
“Martin certainly has earned a lot of respect and credibility in the industry,” said Brad Keselowski, 2012 Cup champion. “Martin is just kind of a telltale story of this sport of somebody that came in with a really great pedigree, winning two Xfinity championships and got to the Cup side and paid a lot of dues. He was probably hung up in situations that weren’t ideal, but he stuck it out and got himself into a great situation and made the most of it, and deserves a lot of credit for that kind of consistency and patience. He’s a super-talented guy who knows how to put his car in the right positions.
“He’s a little bit of a throwback in the sense that Martin is one of those guys that I thought was really good at taking care of his equipment and being there when it mattered, so with each one of these drivers who goes away. it’s kind of the end of its own little era. Martin was probably one of the last of the drivers that had chill to him. It seems like everybody new that comes in … most of the drivers don’t have a lot of chill. Martin is a very chill guy, so I’ve got a lot of respect for him. and I don’t know what his next chapter is, maybe he doesn’t know either, but that’s OK. He’ll be missed in our sport.”
Hamlin said Truex will leave a lasting legacy on the sport.
“This sport can forget about you really quick,” Hamlin said. “I just hope we don’t forget about Martin (Truex Jr.) because I think his career accomplishments are so highly regarded. While he might not have as many wins as I have, he hasn’t been with championship-caliber teams all of his career like I have. So, I think that he’s just a grossly underrated driver.
“We had a survey earlier I had to fill out (at media day) who’s the most underrated driver? Martin Truex Jr. is the most underrated. He makes himself underrated because he doesn’t want to talk about himself. He doesn’t want to talk about his accomplishments because he’s a very modest human and he doesn’t want the fanfare. I’ll sing his praises for him that he’s just been the best.”
Truex, whose 34 career wins rank tied for 25th all-time with Kurt Busch and Joey Logano, has no regrets about his decision.
“I would say I achieved more than I ever thought I would,” he reflected. “That being said, there’s still a lot of heartbreakers, a lot of things you could go back and think about ‘Man, I wish that turned out different.’ You know, a championship, three runners-up in this format. That’s, I feel like, really good. I’m proud of what I’ve done. I feel like I’ve given it everything I’ve had, and I feel like I was really, really good and what I did. Yeah, I’m happy with that. I’m content. I’m good, I’m happy. I feel good about this.”