Martin Truex Jr. said Wednesday that a wheel for the 2025 Daytona 500 is in the works and that its crew chief will have a familiar name
Truex first broke the news on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, confirming the details during a later spin. during Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day events at the Charlotte Convention Center.”It’s true. I didn’t know it was such big news,” laughed Truex, who announced in June that the 2024 Cup Series season would be his last as a full-time driver. “I think people already knew that, so maybe I let the cat out of the bag prematurely.”Truex, 44, was optimistic about making the roster for the ’16 season opener. of February at Daytona International Speedway from his announcement, telling Dale Jr. Download that a flight to the Daytona 500 was “almost a guarantee. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin offered Truex a tour of the venue within hours of his announcement.
“I think it’s almost over, but until the word is out, and it’s still in the air,” Truex said before the August 24 race at Daytona International Speedway. “So it should work.”On Wednesday, Hamlin confirmed that discussions were still ongoing, but nothing had been finalized at this time.
Yes, 23XI and JGR are kind of d ‘options that explore and try to do. We’ll figure out what’s the best way forward,” Hamlin said, “but having Martin in the 500 will definitely be exciting.
Pearn served as crew chief for Truex’s team for five seasons (2015-19) and the pair won 24 races during that span, including the Cup Series title in 2017 He retired after the 2019 campaign, returning. only twice – once as an observer for team no. 19 of Joe Gibbs Racing at Charlotte Roval in 2021, and again as part of a one-week contract as a substitute engineer at Sonoma Raceway in 2022. Forcing Pearn out of retirement once he did not taken long , Truex “Enough chatter, it came to me,” he said. “Exactly,” Would you be interested in doing this?
“Yeah, I think so. So, just talk. It’s going to be fun.”Pearn isn’t exactly a stranger to the current Joe Gibbs Racing program, having been a consultant for the last years and “keeping his finger on the pulse,” Truex added. Their relationship today isn’t much different than it was when Pearn was in charge.”We don’t talk very often, but when we do , it’s just like old times,” Truex said. “He can almost read me like a book. He knows exactly what I’m thinking. I don’t know, he’s just a special man. He’s different from anyone I’ve ever known. He knows everything. He knows the answer to everything. And he tells you things, and you’re like, “How do you know?
Although the details regarding Truex’s part-time activities in 2025 are unclear, there are a couple of numbers he would like to choose from: No. 56 and 78.
Truex drove the Toyota no. 56 for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2010-2013. However, Truex Jr. drove car no. 78 from 2014 to 2018 with Furniture Row Racing, winning the NASCAR Cup Series title in 2017 with those numbers on the door.” It will probably be 78 or 56, 78 being our championship number that is special for me, obviously,” Truex said. “And then my number has always been 56, so we’ll see”Truex and the head of the current crew James Small enters the 2024 game as the 16 seed in the playoff field of 16 drivers, with the No. 19 Toyota just one point below the provisional elimination line.”
“Daytona 500 Reunion: Truex Jr. and Pearn to Team Up Again in 2025”
