Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Martin Truex Jr. retirement in wake of Phoenix championship

Dale Earnhardt Jr. watched as his longtime friend Martin Truex Jr. joined him in retirement following the NASCAR Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway earlier in November.

Afterwards, Earnhardt reacted to the way Truex handled the weekend in Arizona, and his nonchalantness about the entire ordeal. Evidently, the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee believes that Truex was more than ready to hang up his helmet and move to the next chapter in his life.

“I just told him that — so I sent him a text message, I tweeted, or put a post on Instagram, and I saw him in-person. I think my overriding opinion is — I have been a fan of his, I have cheered him on his entire career. He’s never made me question my allegiance or loyalty. I’ve always appreciated the friend he’s been,” Earnhardt said, via the Dale Jr. Download. “Now, he’s shitty at communication. He is terrible at text messages. If you don’t, you might not hear from him for damn months. He’s that kind of friend. But you’ll see him at the hunting lodge and like, it’s all good. But that’s just who he is. That’s who he is.

“I’ve talked to his brother about it. He’s no different to anybody else. He just is not a great communicator. I don’t know who he is, but I don’t want to harp on that. I just was like, ‘Yeah, man, have some fun.’ He doesn’t seem like it’s an emotional thing for him. I do know he’s going to race some more, so he knows he’s going to be right back in the car before the, you know, when the season — I think he’s running a Daytona 500 for somebody. I don’t think it’s as emotional. It’s not like a hard stop.”

While Earnhardt believes a couple one-off races will be on the docket for Truex, he recognizes that his heart hasn’t been fully in it over the past couple of seasons, and his retirement was a long time coming.

“You could tell over the last three or four years, he’s been kind of debating and contemplating this,” Earnhardt added. “He’s kind of at this point in his life where he’s like, ‘There’s a lot of shit that I love to do, and racing is — it was racing alone, and now there’s other things in that bag.’ I mean, he loves to hunt, he loves to fish. He would rather, he may not say this, because he doesn’t want to upset anybody, but he would rather be on that boat fishing than anything else. Even racing. Now, he gets to go do that, and he gets to keep racing, if he wants.

“So I’m happy for him. Great dude. Look forward to all the opportunities. It’ll be cool because he won’t have the stresses of racing.”

Moreover, Earnhardt knows a thing or two about the stress racing week-in and week-out can create, and his retirement has led to an incredible uptick in his happiness. He’s expecting the same for one of his better friends that he’s met through racing.

“Right or wrong, racing made me a miserable person 90% of the time. Him too,” Earnhardt explained. “I mean, look, you know, anybody — look at, ask Kyle Bush. Ask anybody. Unless you’re winning, you’re not happy at all. You’re okay with a good run. But not, you know, for the most part, all the effort it takes just to run good is — it doesn’t weigh out.

“It’ll be nice maybe to see how he is. He’ll be a completely different person, now that he doesn’t have that grind, either in the middle of that grind, or that grind ahead in the coming season. Now, he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. He can plan what he wants to do. Be fishing in Florida or up north, depending on the weather and the time of year. He can go and do whatever he wants, where he wants. He has other businesses going on in the background that continue to allow him to have that flexibility. So, it’ll be cool to see.

“I’m around him during the hunting season and it’s always in the back of the year, and it’s always in that stressful part. So when I’m spending a lot, most of my time with him, it’s in the tougher part of the year, when he’s really kind of as miserable as he’s going to be. So, it’ll be fun to see him kind of loosen up.”

As you can tell, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a ton of love for Martin Truex Jr., and he’s simply ready for his friend to move on from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing. It’ll be nice to see him around the track when he decides to race in 2025 and beyond, but the former champion will be sorely missed when he’s not.