NASCAR: Time confirmed for Martin Truex Jr. announcement

Ahead of the first ever NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Iowa Speedway, 2017 series champion Martin Truex Jr. is expected to announce that the 2024 season, his 19th as a full-time driver and sixth with Joe Gibbs Racing, will be his last.

The 43-year-old Mayetta, New Jersey native, who became the oldest active full-time driver in the series after Kevin Harvick retired at the end of the 2023 season, has contemplated retirement for the last several seasons.

But in the summer of 2022, he signed a one-year deal to continue driving the No. 19 Toyota in 2023, and in the summer of 2023, he did the same thing for 2024. This time around, he has reportedly made a different decision.

Truex is scheduled to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon.

Truex, the reigning regular season champion, sits in fifth place in the point standings through the first 16 races of the 36-race 2024 season, highest among drivers who have not yet won a race this year.

He sits in a 25th place tie on the all-time wins list with 34 victories, the most recent of which coming at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last July. Eight of those 34 wins came during his championship-winning 2017 season, including four in the playoffs alone.

In the five seasons contested from 2017 to 2021, a span during which he spent his final two seasons with Furniture Row Racing and his first three with Joe Gibbs Racing, Truex won at least four races and finished in the top two in the championship standings on all but one occasion.

If Truex's announcement is what everybody expects it will be, all eyes will turn to the No. 19 Toyota, given the extensive list of drivers who have been mentioned as possibilities to take over as the new teammate to Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Ty Gibbs next season.

Chase Briscoe is currently viewed as the frontrunner. With Stewart-Haas Racing set to shut down at the end of the 2024 season, Briscoe is still looking to solidify his plans for 2025 and beyond.

Truex has competed in 664 consecutive races, going all the way back to the 2006 season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. His streak is set to reach 684 before he hangs up his firesuit at the end of the year.