San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Truex’s future uncertain amid talk of his retirement
LOUDON, N.H. — Martin Truex Jr. stood with his back to a table where hours earlier Kevin Harvick had been gifted a colonial musket from New Hampshire Motor Speedway in honor of the driver's final race at the track.
Harvick made his retirement call ahead of the Daytona 500 and has been feted with gifts and tributes throughout his last NASCAR season.
The 43-year-old Truex has yet to make a decision at least, publicly on if he'll return for another season at Joe Gibbs Racing or hang up the helmet and end a career that included the 2017 NASCAR championship.
Truex has floated retirement before, only to be coaxed back to return for another year in the No. 19 Toyota. Truex is having fun again at the track and has two wins after he missed the playoffs last season.
Truex cracked “next question” when asked Saturday about retirement but conceded an announcement must be made soon, maybe even this week.
Is that his timeline or JGR's? JGR would need to make crucial decisions on the driver, sponsorship and potentially a new team to put in place for 2024 should Truex retire.
“Probably more so their timeline than mine,” Truex said.
Truex announced last June that he would return for a 19th season, so discussions for a potential replacement never got far with team owner Joe Gibbs. Without a top-tier free agent available at the end of this season, the team would likely look to Xfinity Series drivers John Hunter Nemechek or Sammy Smith to complete the four-car group. The team promoted Ty Gibbs this season to take Kyle Busch's spot after he left to drive for Richard Childress.
Truex understood the clock was ticking.
“I think about it a lot during the week but not at the racetrack,” Truex said. “That's why I don't really talk about it much. I haven't made a decision
yet, so no need to talk about it.”
He opened the season with a win in the exhibition Busch Light Clash and has since won at Dover and Sonoma. Truex did everything but win last season, which was his downfall. He ran inside the top-10 in the standings through the entire regular season, only to miss a spot in the playoffs because NASCAR had a record-tying 19 different winners last season.
Truex is primed to end this season in championship contention and maybe go out a winner.
Bell claims pole
JGR's Christopher Bell turned the fastest qualifying lap of 124.781 mph on Saturday and will lead the field to green for Sunday's race.
JGR swept the front row in Saturday's qualifying session with Bell joined by teammate Truex, who hit 124.752 mph in his No. 19 Toyota. But it was Ford drivers that took the next three spots with Aric Almirola followed by Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Bell won his first pole of the season and fifth in 128 career Cup races.
Bell has one win this season and is one of 11 drivers with a spot in NASCAR's playoff field. There are five spots up for grabs with seven races left before the cutoff. Truex posted his eighth top-10 start of 2023 and his 19th in 30 career races at New
Hampshire.
Rain, rain, go away
With heavy rain in the forecast, New Hampshire could mark the third straight race shortened by weather.
William Byron won last week at Atlanta in a race sliced by 75 laps. Shane van Gisbergen won his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Chicago in a race called because of fading sunlight.
“I think if we start a race in the rain, we need to have a time limit or something,” 2014 NASCAR champion Harvick said. “The rain laps are so much slower and it just winds up taking all day.”
Almirola won a 2021 race at New Hampshire delayed by rain and shortened by eight laps because of darkness. The idea is always to finish the race on Sunday, even if at a few less miles than promised.
“I think you kind of saw maybe a little bit of rain factor last week in the racing at Atlanta, where guys were really pushing because they knew the rain was coming so they wanted to be up front, so the aggression was high,” twotime Cup champion Kyle Busch said. “But besides that, race distance, race length, I think if you can find a happy spot with a TV window, then just stick to that.”
Melon bash, beer bash
Ross Chastain celebrates each victory with a watermelon smash, in
tribute to his family watermelon farm in Florida. He can crush some beers, too, now that Busch Light will serve as his primary sponsor starting next season.
Chastain already attended beer school and learned it's much tastier to drink a cold beer out of a pint glass rather than the can.
Anheuser-Busch and Trackhouse Racing announced a multiyear agreement that connects one of NASCAR's four premier partners with one of Cup's most polarizing drivers. Chastain developed an aggressive driving style that repeatedly rubbed other drivers the wrong way.
SRX ringer
Ryan Preece, from Berlin, Conn., grew up going to New Hampshire with his father and grandfather and later had success at the track racing modified stock cars.
He's a local fan favorite and hopes to expand his reach on “Thursday Night Thunder.”
Preece, who has yet to record a top-10 finish this season driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, was a late add to next week's SRX all-star series race in Connecticut. Preece was a track regular at Stafford Speedway before his NASCAR career took off and he was thrilled to compete against a lineup that included Hailie Deegan, Brad Keselowski and Marco Andretti.