Truex 'not sure' on future plans as retirement questions crop up again

The wait continues on the future of Martin Truex Jr.

Truex, 43, might be in the middle of a championship-caliber season, but it hasn’t influenced a decision on his plans for 2024. The 2017 NASCAR Cup series champion signed an extension with Joe Gibbs Racing last season and has been taking his career year by year, and the questions about if he’s staying or going aren’t hard to find every week.

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“I don’t know. I’m not sure,” said Truex on why he wouldn’t come back next year. “This sport isn’t exactly what it appears to be sometimes. It takes a big commitment.

“My team is amazing. They deserve the very best driver, the guy that wants it more than anyone else and I’ve been that guy. I want to make sure that if I come back, I’m willing to do that. It takes a lot. It’s not just show up at the track, drive the car, go home. It takes a lot. It takes a lot of commitment. It’s a lot of travel. A lot of time missing things with family and friends and all those things that I’ve done for 25 years.

“Do I want to keep doing it, and am I willing to sacrifice all those things again for my team? So that’s what I’m thinking about. I don’t know that running good and winning makes a difference. It would be pretty awesome to win the championship and walk off into the sunset. I just don’t really know. I don’t really know.”

Truex opined on his future after winning for the new time in New Hampshire. The victory put him back atop the championship standings.

“I’m bad at making big decisions,” Truex continued. “I told somebody out there, I was like, I’ve been looking at saltwater boats for five, six years. Love to fish. Spend a lot of time on the water, and I haven’t pulled the trigger on a boat because I just can’t make up my mind on what I want. I’m just bad at big decisions.

“I finally am about to buy one, maybe this week. I wish I had more time to figure out what I want to do next year, but I don’t, so I’ll know soon. And you’ll know soon.”

Truex has been a full-time Cup Series driver since 2006, joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019 after the shuttering of Furniture Row Racing. The move came two years after Truex won the championship with Furniture Row.

In the four and a half years that Truex has driven the No. 19 Toyota, he’s won 15 races. Truex has made the Championship 4 in four of the last six seasons.

“He tells me the same thing every year that (he’s) right in the middle of trying to make this decision,” said Joe Gibbs. “I go, ‘Come on, what are you talking about, man? You're making money, you're having fun, you're driving race cars. Come on.’

“I think it is very important for us to kind of have some pressure here because it's pressure for all of us. It's a huge deal for us. I really felt like he's having such a great year, and I think he's having fun, and so I'm hoping that we get a good answer for us here.”