James Small on Martin Truex Jr.'s retirement decision: 'Helps the whole company plan for the future better'

For the past couple of years, Martin Truex Jr. contemplated retirement but decided to keep coming back for one more season.

But after this current season comes to an end, that’ll be it for Truex’s full-time career in the NASCAR Cup Series. Truex announced last Friday he will retire and leave Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the season, thus vacating one of the more coveted rides in the sport.

James Small, Truex’s crew chief since 2020 and lead engineer on his cars in the years before, said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday that he believes now is the right time for Truex to call it a career. Small added that they still have business to take care of, such as qualifying for the playoffs and going for a Cup Series championship.

🏆 @JoeGibbsRacing crew chief James Small comments on @MartinTruex_Jr's impending retirement.

🗣️ "It helps the whole company plan for the future better […] I'm glad he's just in a happy place now."

More → https://t.co/WGRTG5gVtL pic.twitter.com/hdYk8FbHq0

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) June 18, 2024

“I think it’s good to be done now,” Small said. “… It helps the whole company plan for the future better and I think it’s just — you know you can see it weighing on him the last four, five weeks of what he’s going to do, and I thought he was pretty convinced to start the year, to be honest of what he was going to do. You could see it changing a little bit and maybe having some second thoughts but yeah, I’m glad he’s in a happy place. He’s at the point where he knows it’s enough and he can just move on.

“We still have a lot to accomplish, and we really need to make the playoffs here. I think we’re in a good position to do it and we can have a good end to the year and send him off on a high.”

Who could replace Martin Truex Jr. at Joe Gibbs Racing?

Truex has won 34 races across 19 seasons in NASCAR’s premier series, including two Coca-Cola 600s and a Southern 500. He reached the mountain top in 2017 driving the No. 78 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, winning his first and only Cup Series championship. Truex tallied eight checkered flags that season and capped it off with a victory in the season finale at Homestead-Miami.

A surefire Hall of Famer, Truex leaves a massive legacy to fill behind the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota. With the timing of his decision coming in the middle of Silly Season, JGR has time to examine the free agent market and find a replacement.

To this point, the name most associated with the opening is Chase Briscoe. Briscoe is looking for a Cup Series ride in 2025 with Stewart-Haas Racing closing its doors after the 2024 campaign.

Briscoe, still just 29 and with a playoff appearance on his résumé, already has “multiple offers on the table” for a Cup Series ride next season, he said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Per Alan Cavanna, Briscoe added that, “It’s nice to feel wanted.”