LOUDON – NASCAR is a fast sport, but sometimes things go slow. Such was the case for NASCAR Cup Series driver Martin Truex, who finally scored his first victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last year in his 30th attempt at the track.
Truex, who announced last week that he will retire from full-time racing at the end of the season, will make his final trip to the Magic Mile this weekend. He looks to get a win on KeynoteUSA 301 to close out his visits to a track that means a lot to him and his family.
“I’ve been going (to New Hampshire Motor Speedway) for a long time,” he said. “I’ve raced there every year since 2000. I won my first (Busch) North (Series) race there and won in the (Xfinity) series. Winning the Cup is something I’ve been looking for for a long, long time. “Finally doing it last year was an amazing feeling.”
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Truex considers New Hampshire Motor Speedway one of his home tracks, as it is a place where he has competed throughout his racing career. He and his family have been coming and competing at Loudon since he was a teenager.
“To me, it’s a very important thing,” Truex told Seacoast Media Group in 2018. “It’s something I want very much. Winning here would be, for me, like winning at Daytona.”
His victory last summer checked that box for Truex, who said in his retirement announcement last week that he feels the time is right to step away.
Truex looks to come away with a win in Loudon
News of last week’s retirement came as no surprise to most, as it was leaked to the media days before the actual announcement. Truex has been openly considering retirement for the past two seasons. With his retirement announced, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion will spend the rest of the season in a victory lap of sorts for his career. It’s only fitting that he returns to a track that means a lot to him for the first stop on that victory lap.
“It’s definitely a special (track),” Truex said. “I have many memories of going there as a child. I’ve actually been going there most of my life. Probably 30 years. Personally, it was an important win for me, because there are always tracks where you really want to win, that would mean a lot to you, and that’s definitely the one. A great place to finally do it.”
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Truex wants to win at every track he appears at, so he doesn’t necessarily have more motivation when he comes to New Hampshire. However, he admitted that he feels a different feeling when he returns to the track he knows so well.
“The personal connection to the place is what makes me feel different,” he said. “Every time I go there, I think about memories and how long I’ve been there. Everything always feels so familiar.”
For much of his career, that familiarity could have bred contempt, as Truex came very close on multiple occasions, only to see his chances of winning slip through his fingers. He didn’t let those disappointments get him down; However, they only further fueled his fire to reach victory lane.
“I had a lot of tough moments and races where I thought we should have won or we were going to win and something happened,” Truex said. “But winning there reminded me of everything that happened between my first win there and finally winning the Cup. That’s 23 years. “It’s a long time and a lot of things have happened.”
Truex is confident that his team can repeat in New Hampshire
Truex would love to come out with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but he knows it’s not as easy as doing what he and his team did last year. In fact, in the 61 NASCAR Cup Series races held at Magic Mile, only four drivers have won consecutive races at the facility. But Truex trusts his team and himself.
“I think we can. I feel like we’ve been good on short tracks overall this year, with our new Camry,” he said. “We’ve been very good at Loudon the last two years with the Next Gen car. It’ll just be a matter of how we adapt.” “The changes we have now to what we did last year and how the track changes. I’m very confident. We have a really good team and things are going well. We just have to put it all together.”
He said the key to closing his Loudon career with a second victory will be his team’s ability to qualify at the front and manage changes on the track throughout the race.
“We just have to try to do what we did last year,” he said. “Position on the court is important. Our guys did a great job last year putting it all together. That’s one of the things we’ve been missing over the years. We would qualify well, we would run at the front and win the stages, but at the end of the race we would no longer be the fastest car.”
Truex savors final laps on the track as he looks toward retirement
Sunday’s USA Today 301 will give fans a chance to see Truex in the twilight of his career, but it will also give him a chance to say goodbye to a track and a fan base that has supported him throughout his racing career. , long before his debut in the Cup.
“I would say I accomplished more than I ever thought I could,” he said at his retirement news conference. “One championship, three runners-up finishes in this format, I would say it’s really good. I’m proud of what I’ve done. I feel like I gave everything I had. I feel like I was really good at what I did. I am happy. “I feel good about this.”
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