Regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. struggled, survived, advanced and lost during the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs this year.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made it as far as the Round of 8, but came up short of the Championship 4 after finishing 25th in the cutoff race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The No. 19 Toyota driver ultimately finished 11th in the standings.
Truex stacked up three wins in 36 races, finding his groove primarily during mid-season races at Delaware’s Dover Motor Speedway, California’s Sonoma Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The 43-year-old also earned nine top fives, 17 top 10s and led 899 laps.
“We’ve been fast at times, but execution hasn’t been solid, hasn’t been consistent. We’ve had some bad luck. We’ve had a little bit of everything. Like I said, some years it feels like it’s your year, some years it feels like it’s not. I just feel we couldn’t do anything right and, when you get down to the final eight and the final four, you have can’t have anything go wrong,” Truex said ahead of the Nov. 5 season finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
Truex confirmed he would return for another season with JGR in 2024.