Martin Truex Jr. announced he’ll be retiring at the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, and Denny Hamlin believes his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate has a fascinating opportunity.
On the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained his belief that Truex Jr. has the opportunity to go out like Michael Strahan, Ray Lewis and Peyton Manning — capturing the grandest prize in their respective sport during the final season of their career. It’s up to Truex Jr. to get it done.
“You’ve always wondered like, when would that moment come with Martin. I think that he always — he’s competitive enough, he wants to leave on top, and I think that you know, from what I gathered from that press conference, like he just wants more time. The time that it takes to be competitive at the Cup level, it takes a lot of commitment, and a lot of time, and for the last 20-something years, he’s had to live by a schedule that somebody else made for him, and he now wants to make his own schedule. It sounded like he was open to running some races next year, an Xfinity car or something like that. But I just think that he — because I do think he’ll miss it,” Hamlin elaborated. “Martin Truex definitely has waves of passion for the sport. Like sometimes it’s lower, sometimes it’s higher. But I think that he’s at an age where he wants to just go do his own thing, and he’s always been a very independent person. You don’t read much off-track news from Martin Truex. That’s just the way that he is, and the way he carries himself. But you’ve never questioned like, his God-given talent.
“He just was so good, and someone that I came out of the Xfinity Series with in 2006. We were part of the same rookie class, and you know, he was the barometer of performance. He just was so good, each and every week, when he was running with Dale Jr. back in that year he won the championship, beat Kyle Busch for the championship. So yeah, I definitely am happy for Martin, and it’s certainly one of those drivers that you think has a chance to win a championship and then peace out. Like, he’s still on top of his game enough to do it.”
One thing is for sure, Martin Truex Jr. can still get the job done week-in and week-out, and if he wanted to continue racing full-time, he’d have a ride lined up in an instant. Instead, he’s making a decision for himself, and if he can go out on top like Denny Hamlin believes he could, it’ll be that much sweeter.
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