Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled a day from many years ago when he saw Martin Truex Jr. in the garage. The latter, as Earnhardt describes, was bewildered and beside himself in frustration at how terribly things were going with his race team.
"I felt terrible for him because I knew he was wasted talent," Earnhardt told ESPN. "I knew he was wasting his good years not being in a good situation."
Earnhardt doesn't believe Truex will ever talk about how he struggled with the combination of race teams and crew chiefs he once worked with. This particular time that Earnhardt revealed, Truex had gone from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Michael Waltrip Racing, earning just two victories in his first eight seasons at the NASCAR Cup Series level.
Perhaps things would have been different, and maybe the Hall of Fame career Truex, 44, has since put together would have started sooner if Earnhardt had his way. Earnhardt once badly wanted Rick Hendrick to hire Truex. Having signed with Hendrick in 2008, Earnhardt tried to convince his new boss in those first few seasons to put Truex in his next available car.
"But you couldn't convince anybody at that time that Martin had that kind of ability," Earnhardt said.
Truex landed at Furniture Row Racing in 2014 and the rest, truly, is history. After a few building years together, aligning with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing in 2016 changed the game. By 2017, Truex was a Cup Series champion and has been a perennial contender ever since. In five seasons driving for Barney Visser's team, Truex won a championship and 17 races and had one finish outside the top 11 in the championship standings.
Joe Gibbs has been Truex's team owner since 2019. He brought Truex in-house when Visser closed his doors.
Truex has won 15 more races in a Gibbs car and made the championship race twice.
"He had earned his way up in NASCAR, particularly at the Cup Series level, and really struggled through some years and paid a price," Gibbs told ESPN. "To get him into our program as an alliance partner and see what he and Cole Pearn were able to do with the team they put together over there, it was great. So, to see someone who has paid a big price in the sport get to the top level and be a part of that, is a thrill for us.
"I think it says a lot about Martin. He paid a big price of struggling through some of the things drivers go through to get to the top level."
Without family funding or corporate sponsors behind him early in his career, Truex got noticed by folks such as Earnhardt through his talent. It was a leap of faith for Truex to move to North Carolina, and when he did, Earnhardt put Truex in one of the Xfinity Series cars he co-owned in 2003. A year later, Truex was full time in the series and won the championship. He made it back-to-back titles in 2005.
When Truex moved to the Cup Series in 2006 with Dale Earnhardt Inc., though, the uphill battle began. There were more headlines for off-track moves than performance as the company encountered continuous turmoil around Truex. A family dispute led to Earnhardt's departure before a short-lived merger with Bobby Ginn gave way to a merger with Chip Ganassi.
A tenure at Michael Waltrip Racing began in 2010, but Truex was still fighting for relevancy. It lasted four years before a race manipulation controversy involving the organization at Richmond Raceway in 2013 resulted in Truex being kicked out of the postseason and his sponsor, NAPA, leaving at season's end. It culminated in the closure of Waltrip's operation.
The silver lining was landing at Furniture Row. Soon, the sport would see what Earnhardt knew all along about Truex.
"If I were him, man, I would be so thankful that I was able to have that sort of part two or that second half of my career that was so exceptional," Earnhardt said. "He could have easily been stuck in a sea of B-class rides his entire career."
Once given the right car, Gibbs was unsurprised to see how Truex could dominate anywhere on the schedule. For example, Truex set a record in 2016 when he led 392 of 400 laps in the Coca-Cola 600. It was his first Crown Jewel win. He'd add the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway later that year.
In the first year that NASCAR introduced stage racing, 2017, a masterclass by Truex and his team taught the field how to accumulate points. He led the series in stage wins (19), race wins (eight) and laps led (2,253).
"He's got real talent," Gibbs proclaimed. With a laugh, however, Truex described his career as "stressful."
"I don't know that there's one word," he said. "There are so many different emotions and things I've been through over the years. It's been a roller coaster, there's no question."
That career has now spanned 19 years. Set to retire after the season finale in November , Truex is tied for 20th on the all-time wins list with 34 victories. He is one of 36 drivers who has won a Cup Series championship.
On his way out, though, Truex could join a more elite group of drivers with multiple championships. It came down to the final race of the regular season, but after crashing out of the event on Lap 3 at Darlington Raceway, the points fell his way by six to clinch a spot in the postseason.
Fitting, isn't it? From his career's beginnings to how he will ride off into the sunset, there has never been any shortage of drama for Truex.
"I always dreamed I could, I always thought I could," Truex said of his accomplishments. "But until you do it, it's all just talk. It was fun to get it done a few times."
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