Martin Truex Jr. set to bring his championship-winning crew chief for 2025 Daytona 500 ride

Martin Truex Jr. has shared that he will be reuniting with his former crew chief Cole Pearn at the 2025 season-opening Daytona 500. The 2017 Cup Series champion is currently competing in his last full-time season.

The 44-year-old revealed Cole Pearn's return to his crew for the 2025 Daytona 500 during a media event before the NASCAR playoffs. The pair had a successful partnership during their time at Furniture Row Racing.

Truex moved to Joe Gibbs Racing after the team closed in 2018 due to money issues. During an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Truex expressed his excitement about the reunion.

"All I know is I'm racing. And, uh, the other cool news about that is Cole Pern's gonna be my crew chief...We're bringing, we're, we're bringing him out of the mountains," Truex Jr. said.

Martin Truex Jr. and Pearn worked together from 2015 to 2019, winning 24 races and the 2017 Cup Series championship.

"He's gonna do it. It's gonna be awesome," he added.

Cole Pearn retired in 2019 and now works as a consultant for Joe Gibbs Racing. His last big job in racing was as chief engineer for Conor Daly at the 2020 Indianapolis 500. He also briefly helped Truex as a spotter in 2021 and as an engineer in 2022.

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"Ready for a break from being on the road" - Martin Truex Jr. on part-time racing in 2025

Martin Truex Jr. plans to race part-time next year and is looking forward to not having to travel every weekend.

"I still love racing. I still love driving cars. Just ready to not travel 40 weekends a year. That’s the only thing."

Truex has struggled this year. He has finished 24th or worse in nine of his last 12 races and barely made it to the playoffs after crashing on the third lap of the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday. Truex, however, qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs by six points.

"I’d certainly like to be the guy on top with the most points. I think we have a good opportunity ahead of us, though. Great team and we’ve been really fast lately. Just need to execute, clean up a lot of mistakes, and a lot of that is on my end as well. We know what we need to do, we’ve done it before, and we’re excited to get going."

Martin Truex Jr. did not give further details about his plans for next year, but hinted at using either the number 78 or 56 on his car. The new car entry will likely be a joint project between Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing.