Dover Motor Speedway has long been considered Martin Truex Jr.’s home track, with New Hampshire Motor Speedway a close second. His brother, Ryan, won two K&N East Series races at the 1,058-mile track in 2010, and his father, Martin Sr., also raced there alongside the late Dale Earnhardt and won an East Series race in 1994.
Last summer at Loudon, Truex Jr. won the latest of his 34 NASCAR Cup Series victories. “New Hampshire is a big part of my career and our family’s racing history,” he said in a press release from Joe Gibbs Racing, the team for which he will drive the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE on Sunday.
“When my dad won there, it was his first big win and I was 12 years old when it happened. I grew up racing there and saw Busch cars and Cup cars for the first time in my life. “Before I moved to North Carolina to make a living racing, the only time I was close to those cars was when I was there.
I have a lot of special memories there, and that place was a big reason why I finally had the opportunity to move south.”
The 1997 Southern Regional High School graduate turned 44 on June 30 and announced last week that he would retire as a full-time driver after this season. He’ll come to New Hampshire looking for his first win of 2024, which would guarantee him a spot in the playoffs.
The 1997 Southern Regional High School graduate turned 44 on June 30 and announced last week that he would retire as a full-time driver after this season. He’ll come to New Hampshire looking for his first win of 2024, which would guarantee him a spot in the playoffs.
But his memories of New Hampshire go back much further than personal accomplishments. “The coolest thing I ever experienced was the combined race where the guys from Busch North competed against the guys from the Busch Series South. My dad’s car was next to Dale Earnhardt’s Busch car and I got to see my dad working under the hood. He was my favorite driver as a kid.
I had a lot of good memories. It was the first big racetrack I ever raced at and there were so many things that made New Hampshire special.” That’s where I got my first win at Busch North. That put me on the map and started getting attention for getting a job and wanting to drive for a living.
It was a really important place for me growing up. ” But a Cup win at Loudon had eluded him until his dominant performance a year ago.
“I think the races you want to win the most are sometimes the hardest races to win, and Loudon was always a race I really wanted to win,” he said. “It felt great to get to victory lane there, and remembering what it was like to get to victory lane in my career and everything that happened during that time went through my mind and it was a really special day and moment.”
Notes
Truex finished 15th at Iowa Speedway last Sunday. … The USA Today 301 race is the 18th of 36 races on the schedule and will cover 301 laps, 318.46 miles, in stages of 70, 115 and 116 laps. … USA will televise the race at 2:30 p.m. … Truex’s major sponsor this weekend is Reser’s, whose brands include Reser’s American Classics and Main St. Bistro.
Reser’s operates 14 locations across the U.S. … Truex grew up in the Mayetta section of Stafford Township.
