(Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Last year, Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team watched the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs unfold from afar. Despite finishing fourth in the regular season, they went winless and missed the playoffs by three points.
That stuck with them. They made sure that didn’t happen this year.
Three wins later, Truex is the regular-season champion for the second time in his career.
“The day after Phoenix last year it was like alright, we are getting to work,” Truex said on Playoff Media Day. “It really lit a fire under everybody to just show how bad they wanted it and go to work on it. I think our whole group across the board really, right after Phoenix, got to work on things and it definitely was a big inspiration for us this year.”
Truex last won the regular season title in 2017, when he had a dominating eight-win season en route to his first and only Cup Series title.
That was with a different organization. It was with a different crew chief, too. However, the core group of crew members has been the same since that magical championship run with Furniture Row Racing, just with James Small calling the shots. Dating back to the beginning of 2017, Truex has made it to victory lane 27 times.
The 43-year-old from Mayetta, New Jersey said he’s felt the magic ignite from six years ago with his No. 19 team in 2023.
“The feeling every week when we go to the track, we are going to have a shot to win, and just confidence in my team and what they are doing,” Truex explained. “I ask for things in practice, and they always find a way to make the car better when I need it. Whether we have a good or bad practice, I always feel like we race well. They are just doing a good job of pushing the right buttons and giving me what I need, which is really what this is all about.
“I feel like our team is very experienced Playoff-wise. The core group has been together and has the same mindset that we had in 2017. It feels the same. That is always good, and it gives me a lot of confidence. They are doing a great job and pushing all of the right buttons, so we just have to keep doing that.”
Truex practices on Saturday at Darlington Raceway. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
Truex’s wins have come at Dover Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in addition to a non-points victory to open the season at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He launched to the points lead after winning Sonoma and has stayed in front for 10 of the last 11 weeks.
Before finishing 24th at Daytona International Speedway, Truex had six consecutive races where he finished seventh or better, which allowed him to pull away from teammate Denny Hamlin and William Byron in points.
“I feel good. I feel as good as I ever have going into the Playoffs,” Truex said. “It’s been a really strong year for us, consistently up at the front, and doing what we need to do. Certainly, let a few wins slip away, which is always disappointing but to have three and the Clash win is a pretty good regular season, so you just have to keep putting yourself in the right position.
“If you look across JGR and Toyota as a whole, I feel like we are stronger this year. Everybody did a really good job in the off-season of making the right changes and working on the right things, and I think for us – just understanding the car. We took a lot of gambles last year and tested a lot of things, and we found a lot of things that didn’t work and that is part of the process of figuring these things out. I think we were really aggressive last year and that was maybe not great at times but this year, I think is just helped speed up that learning process. Better cars, better understanding of those cars and just being able to put it all together is the difference.”
Truex starts the 10-race playoffs tied with Byron at 2,036 points after the reset following Daytona. Byron finished third in points but has a series-leading five victories.
However, Truex will have his work cut out for him in Sunday’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. He had a slip-up in qualifying and will start 31st. Truex has won at Darlington twice in 22 career starts.
