NASCAR: Martin Truex Jr.’s championship proves anything is possible

By winning the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series championship, 37-year-old Martin Truex Jr. proved that anything is possible in NASCAR.

Martin Truex Jr., 37, entered the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season having driver in the sport as a full-time driver since the 2006 season. Prior to this season, he had been a full-time driver for 11 seasons. Through 11 seasons, he had just seven career victories to his name and just one top 10 finish in the final standings, that being a 4th place result in the 2015 season.

Nine months later, Truex Jr.’s career Cup Series win total is more than twice what it was to start the 2017 season. In the 36 races this season, Truex Jr. was victorious in eight of them, taking his career win total form seven to 15.

And Truex Jr. also doubled his career total of top 10 finishes in the final standings as well with his second career top 10 finish. He did so by winning the 2017 Cup Series championship, securing the title by winning his eighth race of the season, the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida to cap off a dominant season during which he won the regular season points title by a mile (or in Truex Jr.’s case, a mile and a half).

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Coming into this season, Truex Jr. had never been or done anything special in the Cup Series. His first career win came in his second full-time season back in 2007, and he did not win another race until the 2013 season, his eighth career season as a full-time driver.

Then in the 2014 season, Truex Jr. came to the one-car Furniture Row Racing team as the driver of the #78 Toyota. But he had a career-worst season with no wins and a 24th place finish in the final standings that season, and things didn’t exactly look great for him moving forward. But in the 2015 season, Truex Jr. won his third career race and advanced to the Championship 4, where he finished in a career-high 4th place in the standings.

Last season, Truex Jr. more than doubled his career win total, taking it from three to seven with four victories. But he was unable to get back to the Championship 4, and he finished in just 11th place in the final standings.

This season, Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing took a huge step forward. The team went from a one-car to a two-car team by signing rookie Erik Jones to drive the #77 Toyota for just this season, and Truex Jr. thrived all year long, winning a career-high eight races to more than double his career Cup Series win total for the second straight season to secure his first career Cup Series championship.

Here’s a guy who has now doubled his career win total for two seasons in a row — in his 11th and 12th career seasons as a full-time driver! And Truex Jr. hasn’t done it by just winning a race or two each season, such as going from one win to two wins to four wins. He did it by becoming a true contender last season and absolutely dominating the sport this season en route to winning his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship. After a full decade of mediocrity, if that, Truex Jr. has emerged as NASCAR’s top driver, going to show that anything is possible in this sport.

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Will Martin Truex Jr. continue to be extremely successful in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season like he was this season to potentially win his second championship in a row, or will he take a step back? The 2018 season begins with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 18th.