Dropping the Hammer: The Unlikely Slow-Burn Career of Martin Truex Jr.

You probably don’t remember where you were on June 23, 2013.

I do.

On that hot Sunday, I was working in the very hot back room of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Springdale, Arkansas, biding time before I’d head off to graduate school in two months.

Why do I have any recollection of my whereabouts that day?

Because at one point I pulled out my phone to see who had won that afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

To my shock, it was Martin Truex Jr.

To those who aren’t familiar with the sport at the time, you have to understand one thing: For six years and 218 races, Truex wasn’t a winner.

His win that day in California was just his second ever in the Cup Series.

The gaps between his first win — in June 2007 at Dover Motor Speedway — and the Sonoma triumph was the series record for longest time between first and second wins.

After the race, Truex said “without a doubt” he felt like wins would be easier to come by.

Smash cut to 2015. Somehow, it was yet again June.

I was in my second season of covering NASCAR for NBC Sports. So for two years, I was guaranteed to be found on my couch every Sunday watching NASCAR.

Except on June 7.

I had the day off and was visiting an art and science museum in Fort Worth, Texas with my great aunt and uncle.

At some point, I again checked my phone on the status of that day’s race at Pocono Raceway.

Surprise!

After a drought of 69 races, Truex had won his third career Cup Series race, this time for Furniture Row Racing.

Taking all of this into account, there’s no way on earth I would have ever anticipated asking Truex the question that I did on January 24, 2018.

It came during the annual NASCAR Media Tour in downtown Charlotte.

“Have you allowed the thought to enter your brain that …. you will likely be inducted into the Hall of Fame?” I asked.

Two months earlier, and 12 years into his full-time Cup career, Truex and Furniture Row Racing had capped off an eight-win season by claiming the 2017 Cup championship.

The New Jersey native said the prospect that he could one day be enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame hadn’t occurred to him until a month afterward, during a Christmas visit to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte to hand out gifts.

“I never thought about it until Winston Kelly actually said it to me,” Truex said, referring to the Hall of Fame’s executive director. “(He) always goes there and helps.”

The two were sitting around chatting before handing out gifts.

Then “out of the blue,” Kelly told Truex, “you know, you’re pretty much a lock to get in here now.”

Kelly then tapped the Hall of Fame patch on his jacket.

“I was like, ‘wow, I hadn’t even thought of that,'” Truex recalled. “Yeah, I can’t believe that. Just to think that, that’s just crazy. Blows my mind.”

Truex has spent the last seven years ensuring Kelly’s prediction would become a reality (though when Alan Kulwicki — who had one Cup title and just four race wins — was inducted, that guaranteed anyone with one Cup title would get it eventually.).

At the time, Truex had 15 Cup wins and had made it to the Championship 4 twice.

Now with 20 races left in the 2024 season, he has doubled his win total and then some (34) and made the Championship 4 an additional three times.

The only other driver in NASCAR’s modern history who had a late career trajectory comparable to Truex’s is Dale Jarrett.

Jarrett didn’t earn his first NASCAR Cup win until 1991 at Michigan International Speedway. It was in his 129th career start and he was 34 at the time, a full seven years older than Truex when he got win No. 1.

Jarett wouldn’t win again until two years later in his 169th start.

You might be familiar with the 1993 Daytona 500.

In all, Jarrett only recorded four wins in the first nine seasons where he made at least 24 starts. Then in 1996 at the age of 39, Jarrett started driving the Ford Quality Care car for Robert Yates.

And the rest is history.

Given the first decade of his career, Truex was without question one of the most unlikely champions of his era.

Now Truex’s future in NASCAR is about to become clearer, according to The Athletic.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will reportedly announce Friday (June 14) he will retire at the end of this season.

Truex’s career has been remarkable.

And it’s one we’ll likely never see again.

I can’t imagine a team owner, sponsor or manufacturer in today’s version of NASCAR who would give a driver the kind of leeway Truex was able to get in the first half of his career.

Truex was able to enjoy (though I’m sure he wouldn’t use that word for the years between wins) a slow burn into success.

That should be appreciated.