In 17 full-time and two part-time seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Martin Truex Jr. has competed in 693 races, completing 618 and winning 34. Perhaps more impressive is that he posted these numbers despite playing on underdog teams for most of his career.
A look at Martin Truex Jr.’s Cup Series career
Truex, 24, began his career with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. in 2004. He raced against drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon in his first outing. He only ran nine races in two part-time seasons, but he won the Xfinity Series championship both years.
Truex won his first race in his second full-time season at Dover. He ran 117 races with DEI and one additional season after DEI morphed into Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
In 2010, Truex joined Michael Waltrip Racing where he ran 144 races with one victory. His time there ended after the infamous ‘SpinGatehe incident in 2013. His sponsor, NAPA, withdrew from NASCAR, leaving Truex without a race.
What seemed like a misfortune might actually have been the most important turning point in Truex’s career. Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing has emerged as a contender, especially after switching to Toyota in 2016 and forming an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. Truex won 17 races with Furniture Row Racing, half of his total of 34 victories.
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True won the series championship in 2017. Given the evolution of the sport, he will likely be the last series champion from a single-seater team. Truex moved to JGR after the closure of the FRR at the end of the 2018 season. He finished his career at age 44 in 2024 with 15 more victories under the JGR banner.
Truex represented two manufacturers, running 225 races for Chevrolet and 468 for Toyota. Three of his victories were taken by Chevrolets, while the other 31 were taken by Toyotas.
Victories and championships
Truex’s background provides important context for his statistics. It is unfair to directly compare him to drivers who have spent their entire careers in top teams. Every company he ran for, except JGR, no longer exists.
Truex has worked with nine different crew chiefs throughout his career. His two longest relationships were at JGR with James little (180 races) and Cole Pearn (179 races). Truex also ran 130 races with Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion at DEI.
The majority of Truex’s wins (24 or 70.6%) came with Pearn pitting, giving the duo a 13.4% win rate. Truex won eight races (23.5%) with Small for a 4.4% win rate. His first two wins were with Manion and Chad Johnston.
Truex has completed 618 (89.2%) races in class. Of his 75 retirements, 68% were due to accidents and 22.7% were attributed to engine problems. Mechanical failures were responsible for retirements for the rest of his career.
Truex’s career win rate is 4.9%. That’s comparable to Bill Elliott (5.3% on 827 carries), Ernie Irvan (4.8% on 313 carries) and Dale Jarrett (4.8% on 668 carries.)
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Looking only at the latter stages of Truex’s career (2016 to present, all with Toyota), he has a 9.6% win rate. His peak period, with Pearn leading the team, had a 13.4% win rate, the same rate as Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.
In addition to his championship in 2017, Truex has finished second in the final standings three times: 2018, 2019 and 2021. He has finished seven of seventeen full-time seasons in the top 10 (41.2%) and four seasons in the top five. . In just three years of full-time competition, Truex has finished outside the top 20.
Truex and tracks
Truex’s victories span 16 different tracks, from Martinville has Fountain. He won four times each at Sonoma, a road course, and Dover, a steeply banked 1-mile track. These two titles represent 23.5% of all his victories. His second-best tracks are Charlotte, Martinsville and Richmond, with three wins at each track.
Truex has 12 wins on 1.5-mile intermediate tracks and 15 wins on tracks shorter than 1.5 miles. Of the 15 short track victories, 11 came on ovals between one mile and 1.49 miles.
There is one gap in Truex’s record: he has never won a superspeedway race. It could remedy this in 2025, when he attempts to race the Daytona 500 while teaming with Pearn.
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Beyond the victories
Truex averaged 15.0 in his 17 full-time seasons. That’s comparable to Tim Richmond (15.2) and Darrell Waltrip (15.1 average.) During his peak years with Pearn leading the team, Truex’s average was 11.2.
When Truex wasn’t winning, he often came close. He had:
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65 top 2 rankings (9.4%). Compare that to Dale Jarrett at 9.6% or Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 9.2%.
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104 in the top 3 (15.0%), again, comparable to Earnhardt, Jr. at 14.9%.
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147 top-five finishes (21.2%). This is similar to Ricky Rudd (21.4%) and Bill Elliott (21.2%).
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291 top 10 finishes (42.0%). again, this is comparable to Ricky Rudd’s 41.2%
Fun facts
Truex had four different car numbers in the Cup Series. He ran:
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216 races in the 19
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180 races in the 78
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163 races in the 1
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144 races in the 56
Truex has driven 190,198 laps and 254,857.3 miles during his NASCAR Cup Series career. It is the equivalent of:
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105 trips from Charlotte to Los Angeles via I-40 and US 84.
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16.1 million Martinsville hot dogs laid end to end.
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Circle the Earth, at the equator, 10.2 times.
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Driving from Earth to the Moon (226,000 miles at perigee, 251,000 miles at apogee) and driving a few thousand more miles once you get there.
The most wins Truex has ever had in a single year was eight, in his 2017 championship year.
