The 2025 Daytona 500 is the event in which Martin Truex Jr. will attempt to stretch his consecutive streak of competing in at least one NASCAR Cup Series event to 22 consecutive seasons. Despite retiring as a full-time Cup competitor following the 2024 season’s conclusion, he will strive for another opportunity to achieve his first elusive victory in the Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway. Should Truex earn a starting spot for this year’s season-opening event, it would mark his 21st consecutive start in the Daytona 500.
A native of Mayetta, New Jersey, Truex achieved his first starting spot for the 47th Daytona 500 in 2005, where he was driving the No. 1 Chevrolet Monte Carlo entry for Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI). Three days prior to the event, he finished in fourth place in the second of two Daytona Duel events and was one of two competitors, including Kevin Lepage, to secure starting spots for the season-opening event in entries that were not guaranteed spots for the event due to not being above the top-35 cutline in owner’s standings from the previous season. Despite starting in 10th place for the main event, Truex ended up in 34th place in his first 500 event due to retiring late amid an engine failure.
The following season, Truex, who was coming off his second consecutive Xfinity Series championship and had been promoted to a full-time Cup ride in DEI’s No. 1 Chevrolet entry, finished 16th in his second Daytona 500 start. Beginning in 2007 through 2015, the New Jersey native accumulated two top-10 runs in the Great American Race and finish as high as sixth, which occurred in 2010 and in his first start driving the No. 56 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. Amid the on-track results, Truex notched his first and only Daytona 500 pole to date in 2009. During the 2009 event, which was shortened due to rain, he led the opening lap and ended up in 11th place.
Then came the 2016 Daytona 500, where Truex was entering his third season driving the No. 78 entry for Furniture Row Racing (FRR). By then, FRR had switched manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota and had formed a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. After being involved in two last-lap accidents throughout Daytona Speedweeks, from the Clash to the first Duel event, Truex was racing in second place behind Matt Kenseth on the final lap of the 58th running of the Daytona 500. By then, both were racing in a draft that included Toyota teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. As Hamlin broke away from the draft involving his Toyota teammates to gain a strong drafting push from Kevin Harvick to move closer to the lead, Kenseth steered to the right to block Hamlin. This allowed Truex to muscle ahead on the inside lane while Hamlin pulled a bold crossover move to get Kenseth loose and shove him out of the draft, all while remaining dead even with Truex entering the frontstretch. Then as both Truex and Hamlin dueled for the lead, the former held a slight advantage entering the tri-oval until the latter side-drafted Truex and managed to muscle ahead to win by 0.010 seconds, which marks the closest-recorded finish in the history of the Daytona 500. Amid the disappointment of missing his first Daytona 500 victory by a nose, Truex achieved his first top-five result in the Great American Race.
Following his near-miss opportunity to win in 2016, Truex had a second opportunity to win his first Daytona 500 in 2017, where he assumed the lead from the pole-sitter Chase Elliott with three laps remaining amid a late fuel-mileage battle to the victory. Truex, however, would be overtaken by Kyle Larson for the lead during the following lap and he would slowly run out of fuel over the final two laps, which shuffled him back to 13th place in the final running order. Amid a second near-miss opportunity to claim his first Daytona 500 title, Truex would proceed to record a career-high eight victories and win his first Cup Series championship.
After finishing 18th during the 60th Daytona 500 in 2018, which marked his last driving for the Furniture Row organization as the team ceased operations at the season’s conclusion, Truex would spend the following six seasons, including 2024, driving the No. 19 Toyota entry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Throughout the six-year span, his best Daytona 500 result was in 2022, where he finished 13th. Nonetheless, he managed to finish 15th during his recent two starts in 2023 and 2024. The previous two seasons would also mark his final two as a full-time competitor as Truex retired from full-time competition.
Despite retiring from full-time competition, Truex was revealed to have joined forces with TRICON Garage, a Craftsman Truck Series race-winning team, to bid for a starting spot for this year’s 67th running of the Great American Race towards the middle of January. Should Truex achieve a starting spot for the main event, TRICON Garage would also achieve its first berth to an event in NASCAR’s premier series. A victory by Truex would also make TRICON the 28th organization overall to achieve a Daytona 500 victory.
We’re going beyond the limits of the Truck Series.
— TRICON (@TRICONGarage) January 16, 2025
TRICON will attempt the Daytona 500 in our @NASCAR Cup debut alongside @MartinTruex_Jr and @BassProShopspic.twitter.com/FyevxKi2E0
Through 20 previous starts in the Daytona 500, Truex has achieved one pole, one top-five result, three top-10 results, 74 laps led and an average-finishing result of 19.5. Currently, he holds the second-most starts in the Daytona 500 at 20 among a list of 45 competitors entered to bid for starting spots for the 2025 season-opening event. Amid his attempt to make his 21st consecutive start in this year’s 500-mile opener, a victory would also make Truex the 44th competitor overall to win the Great American Race. It would also mark the fourth Daytona 500 victory for the Toyota nameplate and make Truex the first New Jersey native to win the event.
Since Truex is competing in a non-chartered entry with TRICON, he will have to earn a starting spot for this year’s Daytona 500 either through the Cup Series’ single-car pole qualifying session on Wednesday, February 12, or through one of two Daytona Duels on Thursday, February 13, while also outpacing additional non-chartered competitors. The qualifying session on Wednesday will begin airing at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 while the Duels will begin airing at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
The 2025 Daytona 500 is scheduled to occur on February 16 with a starting broadcast time of 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
