Dale Earnhardt Jr. details his unique friendship, history with Martin Truex Jr.
With the announcement from his friend Martin Truex Jr. regarding his retirement at the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to take a walk down memory lane.
The pair go way back, Truex Jr. has been linked to Earnhardt Jr. since his early days in NASCAR. During the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the NASCAR Hall of Famer reminisced about when he first met Truex Jr. at a test in Richmond.
“I sent Martin a text, I was like, ‘Hey man, I’m about to watch this press conference man,’ and I was really happy for him. Told him I would see him at the deer camp, because that’s the only time I see him. I don’t even know where to start actually,” Earnhardt Jr. said, harkening back. “The first time I believe I met Martin was at Richmond at a tire test. I took the Gossamer car, that we ended up winning the race with, to test. The Gossamer car, I think we ran it in 2002, 2003, sometime around then, at Richmond, during one of the night races in the Xfinity Series. Orange car. … It was a really great race car. We were testing, I didn’t know the car was as good as it was, but we were testing, getting ready to find out. Martin was there, and he was driving his dad’s car, his family car.
“I’m watching a little practice, and I see him go by a couple of times, and Richie Gilmore came over to me and said, ‘I want you to pay attention to Truex. We were talking to his dad about maybe getting him over here and running him a couple of races.’ So I watched him practice and I was like, ‘Richie, we’ve ought to just throw him in my car. Let him run a little bit.’ Unfortunately, I think it started raining, but he came over there, and we talked, since we had some time with the rain going on at the test, we ended up talking quite a bit. Then, you know, he goes and he ran Homestead later that year in his own stuff, and kept racing his own stuff for awhile. But we ended up becoming really good friends.”
That tire test in Richmond, where Truex Jr. didn’t even get to run in Earnhardt Jr.’s car like he was going to, cultivated a friendship between the two. When Truex Jr. began racing in NASCAR, he was living under Earnhardt Jr.’s roof, as the pair became great friends over that period of time.
“When we were going to run him full-time, and he’s going to have to move here, he moved into my house, and lived just down the hallway from me, in the upstairs modular home that I had,” the NASCAR Hall of Famer added. “He started doing well, making a little bit of money. Able to afford rent. I had probably 20 rental properties, scattered around town. I had one, another one, right on the other end of my property, and he goes and rents that house, with another friend of ours. We spent a ton of time, a ton of time drinking in the basement, going to bars in the middle of the week, hanging out on the back porches, running around on the farm being idiots. You know, we just had a lot of fun.
“We went on a trip, guys trip somewhere tropical. We were on the beach, hanging out, and rented this house. He had started talking to Sherry Pollex. So when we got home from that trip, he moved out. They ended up getting a place, or he went into her house, or I’m not sure what happened, but he left the compound. He’s been on his own ever since.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Martin Truex Jr. racing again: ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’
As for Truex Jr.’s personality, it’s been common knowledge that he’s a reserved person, even with someone he was close with like Earnhardt Jr. and company. Moving forward, fans have been hanging onto the fact that Truex Jr. stated he might run a race here and there, but Earnhardt Jr. won’t hold his breath.
“I’ll say this about Truex. What I mean by that is Martin is not a texter. He’s not going to call you up. He’s not going to wish you happy birthday. He’s not going to say Merry Christmas. Nothing. You might not hear from him for an entire year. But if you walk, if you drove over to his house and knocked on his door, he’d be like, ‘Hey man, where you been? What’s going on? How’s it going, man?’ It’s just like, it doesn’t matter to him. He doesn’t need — he’s one of those unique persons. Like, he’s super severe about this. … Truex is way out there. No contact. … That’s who he is,” Earnhardt Jr. elaborated. “He doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just how he communicates. He’s going to be on a boat fishing, or on a deer stand. I believe, in that press conference, him talking about racing some more, I’ll believe it when I see it. I know he’ll probably get bored, but once he gets on the boat, it’s going to be hard to get off. … That guy right there is going to find new projects, and new things to invest his time in that will encompass his love for the outdoors, his love for fishing and hunting. I see him putting more time into those things, that actually generate some type of revenue for him.
“His connection with Bass Pro and Johnny [Morris]. I mean, he’s the perfect spokesman for that brand, because he lives that life. But I just want people to know that he’s a good dude. Never going to do anything to put you in a bad spot. I’ve always appreciated him. He’s super quiet, super to-himself. When we go hunting, you know, he’s pretty chill. Not a big conversationalist. Not a lot of talk. But we do have fun. We cook. We sit by the campfire and hangout and catch up a little bit. But outside of that race car, I don’t know many people that are as simple-minded and basic as him. He’s not very complicated.”
Alas, it’s evident the friendship between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. is a complicated one, but the two will always have a special bond. One thing is for sure, NASCAR better enjoy the former champion’s final run over the rest of the 2024 season, because it’s not guaranteed he’ll race again afterwards.