Martin Truex Jr. joins the ranks of Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson despite remaining winless in 2024

Martin Truex Jr. reached another milestone in his storied Cup Series career following Sunday's race at Las Vegas. The 2017 Cup Series champion surpassed 500 laps led this season, becoming just the sixth driver in history to have led at least 500 laps for 10 straight seasons.

Trey Ryan shed light on the statistic on X, and the New Jersey native now joins an elite company. He, along with Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Darrell Waltrip, and Bobby Allison have all led 500 laps in 10 straight seasons of racing.

Petty holds the record with 17 straight seasons of 500 laps led, followed by Johnson with 15, Wallace with 14, Waltrip with 12, and Allison and Truex with 10 each.

Despite the achievement, the driver of the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has yet to earn a win in 2024, in what's his final season of full-time racing in the Cup Series. Truex has registered five top-fives in 2024 with a second-place finish at Bristol back in March being his best result. The 34-time Cup Series race winner made the 16-driver playoff field but was eliminated in the Round of 16.

The 44-year-old finished sixth in Sunday's 267-lap event, but his race didn't end without incident as he tangled with playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick on lap 89, causing the two title contenders to collide and crash on the frontstretch.

Truex got away unscathed and continued. When he was questioned by Frontstretch reporter Dalton Hopkins after the race about the crash, the champion driver responded:

"I was on the bottom coming off [turn] four there. Thought we were two wide. Spotter said leave a lane. Not sure. We were kinda close together and the 9 lifted all of a sudden, so I'm not really sure what happened. I didn’t know we were three wide until it was too late, but I still felt like there was plenty of room, and the 9, I think, jumped out of the gas. Not really sure what happened.”

Martin Truex Jr. announced his retirement this season

Martin Truex Jr. announced in June that 2024 would be his 19th and final year competing full-time in the Cup Series. The two-time Xfinity Series champion said his desire to enjoy other aspects of his life and have a less busy schedule led to this decision.

“I mean, it’s as simple as just not having a crazy schedule where, you know, you’re 40 weekends at a racetrack. Everyone in my family, who’s ever gotten married, I’ve missed their wedding. You know what I mean? ... You don’t have a life. You’re married to racing, that’s all you do. Monday until Sunday, that’s all you do.”

It was announced by Joe Gibbs Racing a few weeks later that Chase Briscoe would replace Truex in the #19 car in 2025. Briscoe drives for Stewart-Haas Racing and has done so for the previous four seasons.

Truex has three more chances to try and win one final race before he calls it a career. His last win came at New Hampshire in July 2023.