NASCAR insiders react to Martin Truex Jr.'s last race as full-time driver

Martin Truex Jr. competed in his final race as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver on Sunday, and two insiders loved his reaction when the race ended. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed Truex ending his full-time career in NASCAR.

“He was doing some great things for a while. He was running right up there,” Gluck said. “You talk about somebody that did not regret their decision whatsoever. No tears, no emotion, no sort of the quivering lip like, ‘I’m really gonna miss this.’ Boy, that is one happy man.”

“Yeah, there are no regrets there,” Bianchi said. Despite announcing his retirement, Truex plans to compete in next year’s Daytona 500. Bianchi asked Gluck if Truex wins the race for 23XI Racing, does the team offer him to stay for the rest of the season.

“No, he’s not going to change his mind,” Gluck said. “What would they do, field a car for him the entire year, just because he won the Daytona 500? …He wants to fish, he wants to hunt, he wants to race when he feels like racing and he wants to enjoy his life. How many more clear terms can you hear him say that?”

Martin Truex Jr. shares reaction to ending full-time career in NASCAR

Truex earned pole for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race but finished 17th. For his final Cup Series season, Truex earned 11 top-10 finishes and earned a 10th-place finish in the overall standings.

After Sunday’s race, Truex spoke to reporters about his emotions. “Still not sad, man. Everybody wants me to be sad, I’m happy. I’m celebrating. It’s been uh, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be proud of,” he said. “Go enjoy some time off here, and do the angling all that stuff. It’s going to be fun to come back in a different role and you know, come race for fun. Hopefully be able to have fun, I don’t know, so hard to have fun when you take it this serious. You know I was having fun earlier today then we got miserable. I was hoping today would go better because it’d be more fun but uh, we’ll see, I’m looking forward to Daytona.”