Martin Truex Jr, Cole Pearn reunite for Daytona 500 bid

Retirement for Martin Truex Jr. will technically not begin until the middle of February.

The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion has 10 more races left in what is his final full-time season and he hopes to make it a second title run, too. Next comes an entire winter to prepare for the Daytona 500 just the way he has for the past 20 winters.

Truex has suggested all summer that he still wanted to race a little bit next season, across all three national touring divisions, and that he still covets the Great American Race.

The entry is expected to come in the form of a joint effort by both Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing with a little bit of flair from the Furniture Row Racing team that won the 2017 championship.

Truex revealed on Wednesday at the Cup Series Playoff Media Day that his crew chief from that era, Cole Pearn, wants to spearhead that effort and everyone has agreed to make that happen

“The other cool news is that Cole Pearn is going to be my crew chief,” Truex revealed during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Have you heard that?”

That was breaking news.

“We’re bringing him off the mountains, it’s going to be awesome,” Truex added.

Pearn retired in 2019 to return home to Canada to operate Sentry Lodge, a fly-in touring lodge 20 miles northwest of Rogers Pass, British Columbia.

In 179 races together, Pearn and Truex combined to reach the Final Four on four different occasions, winning their championship in 2017 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with two runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2019.

Of the 34 career wins Truex has accumulated, 24 of them came with Pearn with 70 top-5s, 110 top-10s and 12 poles.

So, regardless of whether it’s under the Gibbs or 23XI Racing banner, Truex will race one of the other two numbers he won with across Michael Waltrip Racing and Furniture Row.

“Yeah, it’s either going to be 56 or 78,” Truex added during a media scrum later in the day. “78 being our championship number, which is a special one. And 56 was always my number, so we’ll see.”

But it is done?

“I think so,” Truex said with a laugh. “I mean, we’re doing it, so I don’t know exactly the details of it, but it’s all but done.”

Truex added that it basically comes down to NASCAR approving of how the ride is structured, be it from a Gibbs or Denny Hamlin standpoint, the latter who co-owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk.

“Yeah, 23XI and JGR are kind of looking at the options and trying to figure out what’s the best avenue for it but certainly having Martin in the 500 is going to be exciting,” Hamlin said.

And even though Truex has said he wants to race a little bit next year, if he can win a second championship and complete his resume with a Daytona 500 win, would he consider just quitting cold turkey on the spot in February?

“I’ll still race still,” Truex said. “I don’t know when and in what, but I’ll still try to have some fun. I still love racing and driving cars, just ready to not travel 40 weekends a year. That’s the only thing, just the travel and every week, having to pick up and go again.”

Pearn most recently came out of retirement to serve as chief engineer for Conor Daly in the Indianapolis 500 at Ed Carpenter Racing in 2020.

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