NASCAR: 3 possible options for a Martin Truex Jr. return in 2025

Martin Truex Jr. is one of the better feel-good stories in NASCAR over the last few decades. A full-time Cup Series driver since 2006, Truex went from having just three wins from then to 2015, nearly losing his career along the way in 2013, to now being a 34-time Cup Series race winner and a Cup Series champion.

For somebody who was practically written off several times, he has also had two of the winningest and most dominant seasons of the 21st century. In 2017, he scored eight wins, 19 top five finishes, and a ridiculous 9.42 average finish en route to winning the championship, before scoring another seven wins, 15 top five finishes, and an average finish of 9.75 in 2019.

Truex is a rare exception to the career trajectories of most NASCAR drivers from each era. While most top drivers start young and do most of their winning through their 20s and mid-30s before falling off to varying degrees in their mid-to-late 40s, the New Jersey native instead started performing at his highest level much later.

Even in his retirement season in 2024, he is still very much a threat each weekend, and he is arguably one of the favorites to win the Cup Series championship, despite having not yet won a race. And what a story that would be.

Rumors had been swirling for years about when exactly the 44-year-old would finally call it a career, before it was confirmed in mid-June that the 2024 season would be his last as a full-time driver.

While his replacement behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 19 Toyota has since been confirmed, it has been widely reported that Truex will still compete in select races in 2025. Given recent indications, it appears that this is still a very real possibility. Here are three possibilities.

No. 1 - Daytona 500

Even from the moment Truex announced his retirement from full-time competition, a Daytona 500 return seemed like a formality.

In fact, following Truex's announcement at Iowa Speedway, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin was very quick to point out that he "will have Truex Jr.'s Daytona 500 car ready immediately" and that all he has to do is "tell me the word".

Of course, the Daytona 500 is by far the biggest and most prestigious race of every NASCAR Cup Series season, and Truex has yet to win it. The former Cup Series champion came agonizingly close in 2016, ironically losing to Hamlin in a photo finish by just 0.011 seconds. He also came close in 2017, leading the race with two laps to go before getting freight-trained on the back straightaway.

Truex has won a lot of races, especially recently, but this is undoubtedly one that he still has circled with his brightest of markers. Any top-level driver without a Daytona 500 victory feels there's a massive hole in his trophy cabinet, and should he not give it at least one more shot, he will feel that way for the rest of his life.

With no season-long goals to focus on after 2024, Truex will be able to put his full focus on this race, very likely driving for a team whose owner has won the event three times. What better way for him to potentially cap off a wonderful career than to finally win the sport's biggest event with one last hurrah?