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Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., a New Jersey native who returns to his home track of Dover Motor Speedway this week as the defending race winner. This interview has been edited for clarity, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast.
1. What is currently the No. 1 thing on your bucket list?
Another championship. Get that done and get the hell out of here. (Laughs)
We talked about this a little bit last year, but is there any way you could do a mic drop? Like even if you already told them you were coming back, could you legitimately walk away if you won in November?
I mean, sitting here right now? I would say yeah, I think I could. But I don’t know in the moment. It’s going to be harder to stop doing this than I think. I’m not real good at thinking about those big decisions or making them, that’s for sure. I just go spur of the moment. Whatever I’m feeling at that time, I’ll just kind of wing it.
So on the championship stage …
It’s possible. It is possible.
2. How much media coverage of NASCAR do you consume?
Not much at all. When I leave the track, I leave the track. I do Monday meetings, and then I’m like checked out until Friday. If you’re gonna do it this long, you’ve got to have stuff away from the track to keep your mental health … and just stay enjoying life and stay hungry and stay excited and fired up and motivated when you get to the track. So that helps me at least, to get away and go do some fun stuff.
3. Beyond winning, what is the best way to measure success in racing?
These days, everything we do is just so criticized and studied. The data and everything is under a microscope. It’s like, “You sucked on pit road today, you were two-tenths slower than everyone.” It’s like everything, every year, gets more difficult. And that’s the toughest thing about the sport now is; it’s doing all those little things right. Sometimes I think the best races I’ve ever driven don’t always have to be a win. Sometimes you have a 10th-place car and you run fourth with it and you didn’t make any mistakes all day and you drove a really good race. So that’s how you measure yourself anymore — if your team is happy with the job you’re doing, usually you’re doing a pretty good job, because — especially mine — they’re pretty critical.
I can imagine there’s not one thing you do now in any way — even turning the wheel the slightest bit — where they don’t know what you’re doing in the car.
Correct. And nobody does everything perfect. So we all always have room to get better.
4. What is an opinion you have about NASCAR you don’t think is shared by the fans?
Something people don’t understand is it’s not all the glitz and glamour. And it’s not all as incredibly awesome as everybody thinks it is to be a driver. It’s a lot of work. It’s stressful. It’s tough. You’re under a microscope all the time. Everyone’s like, “Oh man, it’s so awesome. You get to drive a race car every weekend for a living.” I’m like, “Yeah, well, there’s a lot more that goes into it than that.” So maybe just the misunderstanding about the job and how much it takes to do it and be good at it.
5. Well, you answered my next question, which was “What is the biggest thing fans don’t realize about what you do for a living?” But you just checked the box on that.
Checked! Killed two birds with one stone.
6. This next one is about something current related to yourself. You’re now the oldest driver in the series … (Truex turns 44 in June).
Full-time.
Yeah, I guess Jimmie Johnson is older (48) when he runs his races part-time.
And J.J. (Yeley, who is 47).
You’ve done your research here.
I’ve got to keep up with who is older than me now, because there…
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