By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Ryan Truex‘s 10-race run with Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2024 Xfinity Series season is over.
And in his words, it ended with a bang.
Driving on one of the sport’s most difficult tracks Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Truex ran top 10 all night from the 16th starting spot. And after a lengthy late-race battle with Dale Earnhardt Jr., it was Truex who won the fight, finishing fifth. Earnhardt was seventh.
“I apparently got a lot of TV time running in front of [Earnhardt] for that long so that was cool,” Truex said. “And Bristol is freaking hard, man. The track changed so much, the rubber changed a lot, the bottom wasn’t as grippy as I expected, the top came in. Restarts were crazy. It had a little of everything for a short track.
“I had fun. I feel we needed a little more rear grip and I could have raced for the win. We were just a little off that last run, taking off too free — I could not run the top like those guys. They were just gone at that point. You can’t make that ground up.”
The Earnhardt battle did give Truex and the No. 20 JGR Toyota more TV time. It also gave the 32-year-old journeyman driver a feather to put in his cap.
“I had fun racing with Dale. I think the last time I raced against Dale was like, 2017 or 2016. It’s been a long time,” he said. “I knew when he was behind me, he was probably getting frustrated because I was not giving it to him.
“I told him after the race, I said, ‘I wasn’t going to give it to you because I don’t get to race much either.’ And he was like, ‘I didn’t expect it.'”
The competitive respect was mutual, as Truex knows the challenges at hand to compete on a part-time schedule.
“It was a good time. I knew he was enjoying himself and it’s cool to see him come out once a year and run that good. That shows the caliber of driver he is and shows how good Cup guys are. He’s been retired since what, 2017? And he still is a Cup-level driver.
“If he ran three races in a row in this series, he could win a few of them. Which is really hard to do. I know from experience, it is hard to race part-time, especially when you don’t race anything else.”
The top five for Truex was his third in 10 starts this year, which tied a career-high in the series. Partnered with his two race wins at Dover and Daytona, Truex exits Bristol — and his time behind the wheel of a car this year — with a smile.
“It feels good to finish off the year with a top five,” he said. “It’s a hard track to come to on a part-time schedule. I’m thankful to Toyota, thankful to JGR. Hopefully, they have a good run in the playoffs.
“This is it for the year. I’m glad I could end it with a bang.”