NASCAR: Martin Truex Jr. announces his decision for 2023

Martin Truex Jr. has finally made a decision on his future with Joe Gibbs Racing, announcing his plans for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

After months of speculation, Martin Truex Jr. has finally confirmed that he is set to return for a fifth year behind the wheel of the #19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Truex, the 31-time race winner who has competed full-time in the series since 2006, has long said that he doesn’t need to continue to compete in the Cup Series and he does so because he enjoys it and feels he is competitive.

Today, he added three more words: “I’m coming back.”

The fact that the 41-year-old Mayetta, New Jersey native hasn’t finished any of the 2022 season’s first 16 races inside the top three, in addition to some of his recent comments, led many to believe that perhaps he felt it was time to retire.

He hasn’t adapted to the Gen 7 car quite as well as some of the others have, and given the success he had toward the end of the Gen 6 era, this was particularly notable.

While he sits in sixth place in the point standings, he is tied for 17th in top five finishes and sits in 12th in laps led.

Entering the 2022 season, Truex had won at least four races in five of the last six seasons of the Gen 6 era, and in four of those five seasons, he finished inside the top two in the championship standings, including in 2017 when he won the championship for Furniture Row Racing.

This leaves one big X-factor for Joe Gibbs Racing in terms of their 2023 driver lineup: Kyle Busch. Busch has been seeking sponsorship to replace M&M’s, which announced before the 2022 season began that it would be their last, and while there have been a few promising developments, nothing has been confirmed in terms of his future behind the wheel of the #18 Toyota.