NASCAR

Cameo Daytona 500 Outing For Martin Truex Jr. Comes To Abrupt, Disappointing End

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Jared Turner
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Jared Turner Sports Editor

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Published16 Feb 2025

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Making his only scheduled start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, Martin Truex Jr. entered Sunday’s Daytona 500 with one objective: win.

Unfortunately for Truex, who retired from full-time driving at the end of 2024, his unfinished business in NASCAR’s most prestigious race remains just that — unfinished business.

For the 21st time in the month February, Truex left Daytona International Speedway empty-handed after failing to capture the Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 winner’s trophy that every driver dreams about.

So, what happened on Sunday to keep Truex from potentially being in contention to score an elusive Daytona 500 victory?

Martin Truex Jr. Victimized By One Of Several ‘Big Ones’ in the Daytona 500

Despite Truex competing for a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team making its first NASCAR Cup Series start, hope sprang eternal for the 2017 Cup Series champion when the 67th annual Daytona 500 got underway.

Sure, he was starting 39th on the 41-car grid, but anything can and does happen at Daytona International Speedway. Truex’s optimism turned to familiar Daytona 500 heartache on lap 70 of 200, however. That’s when his No. 56 Toyota fielded by David Gilliland-owned TRICON Garage and sponsored by longtime backer Bass Pro Shops was caught up in a multicar wreck with Helio Castroneves, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and other notables.

Truex’s car suffered significant damage in the accident after making with Chastain and Castroneves, a four-time Indy 500 winner making his NASCAR Cup Series debut.

The worst of the damage to Truex’s Toyota was a broken water cooler, which forced him out of the race and left him with a 38th-place finish.

“It’s always disappointing when you don’t finish no matter what situation, especially in a race like this when it’s probably our only shot this year,” said Truex, who had Cole Pearn, his championship-winning crew chief from 2017, atop his pit box.

“Thanks to Bass Pro, TRICON and everybody that helped us put this together. It was fun while it lasted, but unfortunately, we were just wrong place, wrong time there.”

Martin Truex Jr. Was Non-Committal About Future Driving Plans After Daytona 500 Exit

As is customary with the big-pack style of racing at Daytona International Speedway, the wreck that ruined Truex’s night at the 2.5-mile, high-banked track involved several drivers who did nothing wrong but had nowhere they could go to avoid disaster.

“I’m not sure what happened — a big stack up — and by the time they got to me, it was really aggressive, I guess you would call it,” said Truex, who qualified for the Daytona 500 despite TRICON Garage not having a charter to fall back on. “Just no time to react and knocked the nose off of the (car). Just unfortunate for all of our guys.

“We had a fun week down here, making the race. We were hoping to have a lot more fun than that.”

Added Truex: “We were just biding our time, and just in a bad place on the restart there.”

With the Daytona 500 now in arrears, does the 44-year-old Truex expect to make future NASCAR Cup Series cameos?

“Yeah,” he said. “Just don’t know when or where or what. We will see.”