Martin Truex Jr.’s crew chief highlights “circumstances” factor behind winless farewell season

Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief, James Small, recently touched upon the circumstantial factors that prevented the driver from winning a single Cup Series race in his farewell season. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver retired from full-time racing in the Cup Series at the end of this season, and he went out without a win in his tally in 2024.

Two-time Cup Series regular-season champion, and the 2017 Cup Series winner, Truex Jr. decided to part ways with full-time Cup Series racing in June this year. However, he wanted to remain in the sport and run the Daytona 500 next season.

As Truex Jr. failed to win a race and gain automatic qualification for the playoffs, he made sure he did it the hard way. The JGR driver stayed consistent throughout the season and earned Cup Series playoff qualification by virtue of points.

In a conversation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 recently, Small, Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief said that "not visiting the victory lane was more substantial than anything." He said:

"I definitely think a lot of it is circumstances. You know you just look at like Nashville, obviously like straight up in New Hampshire that the 11 and even the 19 were right there at the end, and we both ran out of fuel. The 11 was gonna win the race no doubt. Even as soon as Vegas, where Battle had the dominating car that day, it's one of those races with circumstances." (0:01-0:21)

Martin Truex Jr. was eliminated in the round of 16 as he neither won a race nor had enough points to qualify for the round of 12. Despite this, he had a decent finish to this year's championship in 10th place, with 2257 points.

He claimed five Top 5s, 11 Top 10s, two pole positions, and suffered three DNFs. His average start position was 12.444 and his average finish position was 17.389. It's strange how Martin Truex Jr. led 555 laps this season, yet failed to hold on enough to win a race.

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Martin Truex Jr.'s Crew Chief suggested ways to rectify mistakes

In the same interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief, James Small, suggested ways on how Joe Gibbs Racing can avoid a repetition of the 2024 season. Here's what he said,

"All you can do is put yourself in the position to win a race every week and be there at the end and hopefully it all falls your way. So you know, definitely things we need to work on in terms of Speedway stuff, I feel like we're a little weak there which just depends on how you devote your resources, and what you think are the most important races." (1:00-1:20)

Martin Truex Jr (19) during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. (Image Source: Imagn)

Despite having all four drivers into the playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing failed to win the Cup Series championship. Christopher Bell was the best-placed JGR driver in fifth place.