Martin Truex, Jr. will remain a fixture in the NASCAR Cup Series lineup for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024, the championship-winning driver confirmed after qualifying for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Raceway.
The Mayetta, New Jersey native, who similar to last season was pondering whether or not he would return to NASCAR’s top echelon, will continue to hold his seat in the No. 19 Toyota Camry TRD for what will be his 19th full season of competition.
In a manner true to the personality of the 43-year-old, Truex started the media scrum by simply saying, “I’m coming back,” and the rest was history.
"It didn't feel right to not come back…"
Martin Truex Jr. has made his decision.
He will return to the No.19 in 2024.Hear more about his decision: https://t.co/QN7LRyGuOp pic.twitter.com/7vOIdTnuuH
— Taylor Kitchen (@_TaylorKitchen_) August 5, 2023
Entering Sunday’s event at Michigan, Truex is handily leading the regular-season championship, having posted three victories – Dover, Sonoma, and Loudon – eight top-five, and 12 top-10 results on the season thus far.
“Got it out of the way, and it just didn’t feel right to not come back and keep doing what we’re doing,” Truex said about his return. “Excited to get that out of the way, and continue to work on this year, and obviously excited for next year, as well.”
Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of 2019, Truex has recorded an impressive 15 victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, which ranks tied for third in the last five seasons, behind only Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.
“It just felt like the right thing to do was to keep going,” Truex continued. “The more I thought about it, the more I was like, ‘Okay, don’t be stupid,’ we’ll go race another year and see how it goes.”
Truex and Joe Gibbs Racing remain very much in the hunt for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship, and could widely be considered favorites heading into the post-season, with the strong stretch of races the No. 19 team has had.
Should Truex be successful in winning the NASCAR Cup Series title at Phoenix, he would become the first driver in the history of NASCAR to score multiple championships in two of NASCAR’s top-three divisions.
