"He ain't winning the d**n war": When frustrated Martin Truex Jr. blasted NASCAR Cup Series title rival following scathing Miami blow

Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano were among the four drivers vying for the 2018 Cup Series championship. Tempers flared between them at Martinsville, just a week before NASCAR hosted the Championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The drivers exchanged fenders several times before Logano took the checkered flag. Truex Jr., the reigning Cup Series champion at the time, wasn't happy with how Logano raced him at the Virginian short track. He minced no words while speaking of his rival during a post-race interview:

"He may have won the battle but he ain't winning the d**n war!"

Logano felt that there was nothing to apologize for. He knew he had raced his fellow racer hard and that's what he expected from his opponents as well.

"Hey, I expect to get raced the way I race people," Logano said (via ESPN). "I'm a hard racer. I expect to get raced hard. I said it before, we didn't crash each other. I didn't crash him. I moved him up enough to have a drag race."

Logano did win the "war"; thanks to his performance at Homestead-Miami Speedway the following week. With 15 laps to go, he restarted third behind Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. Soon, Logano snatched the lead from Truex Jr. and won the race.

That day, Logano won his first Cup Series Championship as well, something that perhaps every NASCAR driver dreams of winning.

"It goes to show that we executed under pressure, not just today or the last five races, but the last 10 is when I felt like, ‘We got a shot at this thing," Logano said (via NASCAR).

Logano won his second title in 2022 when NASCAR introduced the NextGen Cup car. Today, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch are the only active Cup Series drivers with two series titles under their belts.

Martin Truex Jr. to run special throwback scheme at Homestead-Miami

Martin Truex Jr. is nearing his retirement. Chase Briscoe, who currently drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, will replace the 44-year-old, Joe Gibbs Racing driver behind the wheel of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Camry in 2025.

Bass Pro Shops is a long-time partner of Truex Jr. They were together when he won the 2017 Cup Series champion for Furniture Row Racing and to this day, they share a bond that dates way back to 2001.

Therefore this time around at Homestead, Martin Truex Jr. will pilot a throwback Bass Pro Shops scheme, the one that his car flaunted during the Championship race in 2017. Joe Gibbs Racing confirmed the news through a recent post on X (formerly known as Twitter):

Despite not winning a single race, Truex Jr. qualified for the playoffs this year, solely on points. However, he fell out of contention at the end of the Round of 16. According to reports, the veteran racer might return next year for a one-off appearance at the 2025 Daytona 500.