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“Daytona 500 Reunion: Truex Jr. and Pearn to Team Up Again in 2025”

2 months ago

“Daytona 500 Reunion: Truex Jr. and Pearn to Team Up Again in 2025”

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.”

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