Joe Gibbs reveals Martin Truex Jr. will continue with JGR, albeit in a different role - “He is going to continue with us"

Joe Gibbs has said Martin Truex Jr. will continue with the North Carolina-based outfit but not as a racer. This comes after the #19 Toyota driver announced retirement from full-time Cup Series racing at the end of the 2024 season.

After serving for over 20 years in the NASCAR scene and running with an uncertain future for the past couple of years, Truex Jr. settled the speculative air around his retirement on Friday. During a media conversation ahead of the Iowa Corn 350 race (scheduled for June 16), the JGR driver broke the news.

The 43-year-old has spent over two decades in the sport and has carved his name as one of the most dominant and successful drivers. The veteran has two consecutive Xfinity Series titles and the 2017 Cup Series championship.

Though he's yet to claim his second championship in the pinnacle of stock car racing, he has finished the season as a runner-up three times, missing the championship by a whisker.

With his abundance of experience in the motorsports world, Martin Truex Jr. could prove to be an asset for his team even if he's not behind the wheel. Team owner Joe Gibbs confirmed the future NASCAR Hall of Famer's presence in his garage as a mentor for projects and as an ambassador.

"Martin is going to continue with us. He's going to be an ambassador for us, work on projects and different things," Gibbs' message read via Kelly Crandall on X.

"Time to slow down"- Martin Truex Jr. after years of thinking about retiring from NASCAR

In 2022, Truex Jr. first teased his retirement from the full-time Cup Series scene, as he navigated his thought process about staying with JGR or part ways with the sport. But the 2017 Cup Series champion returned to his stable for the 2023 season and raked in three wins, nine top-5s, and 17 top-10s.

The next season saw the #19 Toyota driver's retirement uncertainty doing rounds in the community once again. However, on August 5, Martin Truex Jr. silenced the notion with his contract extension with JGR. This season, he has collected four top-5s and seven top-10s so far.

After investing 21 years of his life in Cup Series racing, the New Jersey native has finally decided to part ways with the sport.

"I've thought about it a lot the past few seasons and just waited for that feeling in my mind to be positive, like this is OK, I'm good, I want to do something else. Something just felt different this year for me. I felt like it was time to slow down and do something else," the JGR driver said via Speedsport.

But in a conversation with NASCAR, Martin Truex Jr. outlined that his racing days won't be over after his retirement,

“I still love racing. I’m still going to race some – I don’t know what, when, how, why – but I feel very fortunate to be in this position to make this decision,” the JGR driver said.

Per the latest rankings, Martin Truex Jr. is placed fifth in the Cup Series standings and is shy of 53 points against the leaderboard topper Kyle Larson. Thus, the former is at high odds of clinching his second Cup Series title.