NASCAR
Martin Truex Jr Returning to Joe Gibbs Racing 19 Car for 2023 NASCAR Season
“I’ll be back in the 19 next year,” Martin Truex Jr. said during a Friday media availability at Nashville Superspeedway. The 2017 Cup Series Champion and 31-time race winner will return for at least one more season. After very publicly deliberating his future driving endeavors in recent weeks, perhaps the biggest silly season question has now been answered.
“There wasn’t any one thing,” Truex said on why he chose to re-sign with JGR. “I came to this decision over the past six months. I just wanted to see how everything would look both ways. The competitive side of me is not done, and we’re going to keep fighting.”
“It was a little bit (of a performance-based decision). It was a little bit of everything. I don’t like not running good, I’m here to win, everyone’s working hard right now, and I’ve got an awesome team. They got my back and I got their’s, it’s just an up-and-down sport. I’ve been a lot worse off than this before.”
“We’re sitting in a good spot in points,” Truex said of his current Playoff position. “It just depends on how many guys win if we can’t. But I feel like we’re getting closer, we’ll keep doing all we can. I feel pretty good about my car here (at Nashville), it’s the best I’ve felt in awhile. I don’t know if the speed’s necessarily there but it felt good. We ran the first 10 laps of practice and that was the first time all year where I’m like ‘I like it.’ I hope that’s a great sign for us this weekend, but we’ll wait and see.”
Still winless through the first 16 races of 2022, Truex is sixth in overall points and would start the Playoffs as the 10th seed. Driver 19 has been close to a few wins this season, most notably Las Vegas in March, Kansas in May, and Gateway in June. While on an uncharacteristic 24-race losing streak, the 19 us still in great position to make a Playoff run. With four wins a season ago and runner-up in points, Truex certainly can still perform at the highest level. It will be great to see the past champion back again for year two of the Next Gen car, as he only pads an already Hall of Fame eligible career.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports
