The Dale Jr. Download - All About Truex From Those Who Know Him Best

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Now that Martin Truex Jr. has determined this season will be his last as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, there will be no shortage of celebrations of Martin’s stellar 21-year career over the next six months. Today on DJD Reloaded, we talk to several people instrumental in shaping MTJ’s storied career, from old buddies like TJ Majors and Josh Snider, to a couple of crew chiefs he won Championships with: Kevin “Bono” Manion and Cole Pearn. This week's show is full of great stories as we relive our favorite Truex memories (Captain and Coke, anyone?) and look ahead to what could be next for MTJ. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, they don't make them like they used to, and that is certainly the case as it pertains to Martin Truex Jr. In fact, we might not ever see a Cup Series driver quite like him again. If you haven't heard the news by now, Martin Truex Jr. is hanging it up at the end of the season, which means the farewell tour starts right now. We thought we'd be the ones to kick it off on DJD Reloaded today, but how do you sum up a 20-plus year career in NASCAR? We know NTJ might not love this type of thing, at least yet, which is why we have called on several of his friends today. We got Josh Schneider, T.J. Majors, and two championship crew chiefs in Bono. And yes, even Cole Pern is calling in today.

We're going to be talking about Truix's career, what's next for the driver, and more importantly, get into the stories that only friends can tell. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Welcome into another episode of DJD Reloaded. My advice would be to let it happen, absorb it, let people celebrate them. It matters to them. They're not doing it just for you. Certainly one of those drivers that you think that has a chance to win a championship and then be south. Welcome inside the Bojangles studio for another episode of DJD Reloaded.

I am your host, Carla Gebhardt, and actually, As you can tell, we are talking all about Martin Truix Jr. today. This is a driver that's been a part of the sport for a very long time. 19 full-time seasons in the Cup Series and just going through the list of a stats. They're extensive. A Hall of Fame career. 34 Cup wins, a 2017 Cup Series championship with Furniture Row, two-time Xfinity champ, and of course those three crown jewel races.

And listen, he's not done yet. 19 more races left to go in 2024. but we're going to have a little fun celebrating his career today or at least starting to celebrate a little bit today, which is why we have a completely, completely packed house. We have T.J. Majors. We have Kevin, Mannion, of course, Bono, as you know him as. And then Cole Pern is also joining us via Zoom today. Josh Schneider is a friend, a PR rep that's going to join us a little bit later in the show.

But T.J. Cole and Kevin, obviously, I didn't really give you any credentials as to, you know, you all have extensive resumes as well. But I kind of want to know what your viewpoint is from your relationship with Martin Truex Jr. So, Cole, you're joining us via Zoom. We'll go ahead and let you start and kind of introduce yourself as it pertains to MTJ. Yeah. For me, I guess it's about 10 years ago I met Martin. You know, obviously, see him around the garage and stuff like that before that.

But, yeah, we had a year together at French Row that was not very good. I was race engineer the first year. And then, yeah, had good five years together as crew chief with him. And, yeah, he's been, I think it's been five years since I was a crew chief for him. So, yeah, he's continued to keep on winning, that's for sure. Yeah, we appreciate you calling us, calling in and, of course, joining us today. TJ, you want to give us your wrap on that? Yeah.

You know, I'm at, you know, I've known Martin since they, you know, hired him. You know, I told a story on Doberbaclear this week about meeting Martin, and the first time I met him was when, in 2004, when Dale Jr. won the Daytona 500. And, man, it just became, you know, Martin, when he moved down North Carolina, it was every day. I think he lived with Dale Jr. right when he moved down here. So we were there daily racing and, you know, getting to know Martin. But you could always see, you know, Martin had it in him from the very beginning. when he first started driving.

And, you know, Martin, I looked up to him as an up-and-coming driver myself at that time. I looked up to Martin a lot and getting to know Martin over the years and being fortunate enough to be one of his friends. I can't believe it's been that long. You're making me feel old. Bono. Yeah, old for sure. No, I guess it was 2003 when, you know,

when we met Martin and he came down through Richie Gilmore, who was at DEI at the time, said, hey, I got this guy that's up in New Jersey, this kid rather than a guy, but, and I'd known his family from racing up and loud and his dad race and his uncle race. So, you know, Richie get him to come down. I think his first time was, we were at a test at Richmond with the Bush Car with Dale Jr. and Dale let him run a few laps, you know, And that's basically how it started.

And then, you know, as they say, the rest of history. Yeah. So you all three have known him for quite some time. Cole, I'm going to go back to you on a scale from one to 10. How uncomfortable do you think MTJ would feel if he was in studio with us right now? And we were having to talk about him and make it all about him. Well, I don't know. You definitely get a few drinks in him.

It might be cool better. Definitely. His word count usually goes up a bit after that. Other than that, you might get three or four at the time. if you're lucky. Yeah, that's a good thing to know, a good tip at least. Well, Dale Jr. actually had a few tips about how he should approach, maybe the six-month victory lap.

So let's go ahead and take a listen to what he had to say on the Dell Jr. download. If you announce your retirement and you're a champion like he is in a Hall of Famer like he is, people are going to want to celebrate you. As you go to these races for the rest of the year, people are going to want to take a moment to acknowledge you. My advice would be to let it happen, absorb it, let people celebrate you. It matters to them. They're not doing it just for you.

If you get called in the press center at some of these racetracks for some special moment, just go with it. Literally like, you know, it's a victory lap. As much as you may not be in love with all aspects of everything that happens outside of the car, you're going to find out that you actually liked a lot of it. So some sound advice, I think, from Dale Jr. A lot of shaking heads in the studio. Cole, I'm going to go back to you, though.

I mean, I think we know that Martin's pretty reserved. A lot of fans, you know, I feel like he's that driver. What you see is what you get for sure. But how do you think he's going to handle this victory lap in the last six months full time? I'm sure he won't love it. But, you know, he's a pro. And he'll, you know, I think what Dale said there, he will definitely, you know, take it in stride that way.

I know him and I used to sit there and complain when Tony Stewart retired and Jeff Gordon retired and Dale Jr. retired. You got to sit there every week and the driver's meeting clapping for them week after week after week. It's like, come on, retire already. But I know he will love it, but I'm sure he'll embrace it and be a pro. He always does so well when he's put on the spot like that. I'm sure he will in this case as well. TJ, you are part of Dale Jr.'s farewell tour as well. What kind of advice would you have for Martin?

Um, just enjoy it, like Del Jr. said, um, you know, he's pretty much won everything. You can, I mean, he's obviously a Hall of Fame career. So just enjoy it, like he said, and enjoy them. People wanting to take that picture or wanting to be around you a little bit. Um, because, you know, this time next year, who knows, you know, where you're going to be. And, I mean, Martin will probably be watching still here and there. Um, but just, you know, it's going to be gone. before you know it. So these 19, whatever we have left, are going to go by really quick. I don't even, I mean, we're already way or further into the season than I thought we were. And it goes by really fast. So just don't, I mean, it's like watching, it's like watching a kid grow up.

You know, one minute, they're one, they're one, and the next minute, they're 10. And it goes quick. So just try to enjoy it, you know, he's done so much. And he's a, and he's a, staple. I mean, it's going to be weird not seeing them out there. So, you know, I'll probably, you know, it's going to be a little bit different, you know, for me too, seeing it because Mark, you just so used to seeing them out there, you know, and, but yeah, just enjoy it, man, and just try to remember all the good times. Yeah, it is going to be strange for a lot of fans. You mentioned all the success, though, that he's brought to the sport and to the fans. It's one of the reasons everyone loves him as well. Bono, you were a part of a lot of that success from early on,

especially, obviously the Xfinity series and those titles. What do you remember most about that time and how have you seen him grow in his career since then? Yeah, you know, I think just it seems like so long ago, honestly, but just fun. We had fun. We were all young. The Chance 2 team was, you know, extremely, extremely young. You know, the oldest guy might have been 25, 27. 2627, you know. So we were a chance that Dale Jr. gave us with Martin to kind of come up and

grow up together. It was just just good times. Everything we did, we did as a team. Johnny Morsewood Bass Pro Shops provided us with a pontoon boat that was, that we named Chance to Chill. So just a group of us that that did everything together and had fun. And, you know, as far as as Martin growing. He's still probably the same Martin. Like doesn't, uh, doesn't probably welcome this, but, but, um, you know, it's much needed, uh, thank you tour, like you said. What kind of driver was he back then? I mean, especially in comparison to now. Yeah, just, um, the It factory had it, you know, was just, it was just, it was just simple to him, you know, it was, um, like I mentioned that first test. I remember Dale Jr. going out and finally giving Martin a chance at the end of the day,

we put a set of stickers on. And Dale, you know, we went out and Dale Jr. said, man, that thing's really loose. We'll see what he says, you know. And he went out and said, ooh, it's loose, you know. So that was a funny time. But just as a driver, he just, no matter where we went, he just adapted. I remember testing at St. Louis, our first time there. We went there with a trailer, a Dooley, because the big truck was on its way to Pike's Peak. And, you know, we made like 15 laps. He's like, all right, now what are we going to do for the next two days? You know, like it was, he just was automatic to him.

So he'd just get out and say, fix it, and we'd work on it, you know. But as far as today, I'm glad to see the success he's had. I remember finally texting him and after he finally got another cup win, and I said, damn, it's about time. So, but just still, like when he gets out now, he's still the same, Martin, you know, little more gray hair, but still just gifted driver that, that, you know, it doesn't take, it just takes it as it comes. And I wouldn't say people run over him, but he was always very nice and never really got excited in the car, maybe once. Yeah, you mentioned the it factor. Col, did you feel

that way as well when you two kind of joined forces at Furniture Row? I mean, you all had such a run there. And of course, 2017, everybody always talks about, you know, that feeling kind of like a, like a, like an upset of a major upset in the sport but what do you remember most about when you first met martin at furniture row um yeah he's a 40 year old teenager um fakes up late and you know it's just uh not really calm though i mean our first year together was pretty pretty awful and you know i think that was good for us in the long run because you know i i had seen him have success you know previous in his career and it's like he's not this bad. Like, we suck. Like, we got to work on this to get better for him. And, you know,

eventually we did. And I think, you know, you're able to build that trust together. So for me, with him, it was, you know, we always had a quiet confidence in each other that, you know, if we did our job right, he'd do his job and, you know, vice versa. We knew that if, if we got it all right, he was going to get it all. And that's what you need in the driver, right? You got to, you got to have one that you can trust and you know that is getting at every lap. And, you know, I think as time came on and you got data and you know, you see how loose the thing is every lap and he's just wheel on it, you know, pulling away from the field, you know, on edge. And you're like, how can you not like that guy? So definitely the more success you have, it strengthens that relationship, you know, builds that bond even tighter.

So for us, it was, you know, started low and, you know, kind of went from there. What do you remember most about that 2017 season? Does anything stand out or a story from them? Yeah, we won a lot of races that year. I think, you know, a classic racer, you remember the ones you lose more. I think we could have won, you know, way more. We let a lot of laps out here and had to get speed everywhere. So it's fun.

It's fun going to the racetrack every week when you think you can win. And that's a feeling you strive for in racing your whole life. And when you get it, you know, you got to enjoy it. And I think we did a good job of that. We always, you know, I think Bono mentioned. Same thing. We had a really tight net team. Usually, the good teams usually are tight net. And I think we had a lot of fun that year.

It was also, we had a crazy year in terms of, you know, stuff happening outside the sport and stuff. It was difficult. But, you know, really pulled us all together, which helps. It's nice to have a place, safe space to go to. And ours was the racetrack that year. Absolutely. And I think a lot of us have seen drivers leave the sport, retiring, or especially full time. And that kind of brings up a.

another point of every driver that ends up retiring wants to go out on top. But just how realistic is that going to be for Martin Trurox Jr. I mean, we go to Loudon this weekend. This is where he got a win just last season. No wins yet this season, but he's still top five in points right now, plus 122 above the cut line. And like we've said, this season is not over. So he certainly could win several more before the regular season even ends.

But his teammate, Denny Hamlin, had some things. things to say about this as far as Martin Truex Jr.'s chances to end his career on top. You never questioned his God-given talent because he just was so good and someone that, you know, I came out of the Xfinity series with in 2006. We were part of the same rookie class and, you know, he was the barometer of performance. I definitely am happy for Martin and it's certainly one of those drivers that you think that has a chance to win a championship and then peace out. Like, he's still on top of his game enough to do it. And that was on actions detrimental earlier this week.

Bono, how realistic do you think it is for him? 100% for this year. You know, he's, you know, they're a great, great team. And I feel like, yeah, he can go out on top and win the championship. And not that you'll never see him again, but I think he'd be. content. You agree with that, TJ? Yeah, sorry. I think Martin is going to sleep till noon still.

And I don't think that's changed. But I definitely think Martin is, I mean, he could go out on top easily this year. Martin's type of guy that he could go and win the next three races. And if he does win, he could walk right off with it too. So, yeah, I think really, really. really good chance that Martin can get hot at the right time and win the championship and sail away. Yeah, Col Martin's also tied for the most championship for appearances right now.

I think when you think about his career, the word consistency really comes to mind. Is that kind of how you feel about his career as well? Yeah, for sure. Obviously, you know, in this playoff format, he's had good success in making the final four. I know we'd won it in 17, but, you know, 18 and 19, we'd, you know, had a really good shot to win it. I was really hoping my last one would win with the championship, but we put the tires on the wrong side of the car,

so that didn't work out. Hopefully that doesn't happen to him, but yeah, it's so hard, though. I mean, you know, I think even the way the playoff schedule is now, it's such a random array of tracks, you know, round around, you know, you got to have things go your way. You can, you know, that's classic racing. You can do everything right, and it's still got to go your way. And I think for them this year, I mean,

they got to clean it up in the pits. You know, pit stops have been a struggle for them and, you know, get that race execution down. And I think if they do that, then for sure they, you know, have a chance to get there. And he's run well at Phoenix. And I don't know, one race, it's so crazy how it can go. So for sure, I think they can get it done. T.J, what's been the most impressive thing that you've seen him do this year? This year just he's so consistent like every I mean he's still way up there in the points

I know he doesn't have a win yet this year but he's still way up there in the points he's going to win I think this year I do think he's going to win just just the consistency that Martin has from year after a year still and the speed that he has and you know Martin he never really changes he never his tone and attitude is always the same and it's been the same since I've known him. And for him to just carry that still for, I guess, is this 20 years or? 19 full time in cup, but over 20 and, yeah. I just think to be the same exact guy that he's been.

And 17 when he won the championship, I text him afterwards. You know, hey, man, super proud of you. Congrats and the response back. And he's like, thanks, buddy. We're all still the same people, too. You know, which I thought was kind of cool. Yeah. How big of an upset was that that year?

I mean, I know they won a lot of races, so you kind of saw it trending, but still for Furniture Row to do that. What they did at Furniture Row from what they built to eventually becoming a JGR team in-house was incredible. We talked about it this week on Doorbubber Clear. Like to go and build from what they did to become a premier team and to be. the top dog. I mean, it's incredible. It's super hard to do, but they did it. And, you know, what they did was super impressive. Yeah, well, we've definitely enjoyed talking about Martin Truex Jr.'s stats so far throughout his career. But we know that you're really here for the stories from his friends. So we're going to get to that next. Plus, we'll be talking about what's

next for Martin Truex Jr. Well, it was actually on door bumper clear earlier this week where TJ, you actually talked a little bit about Martin and some first time stories that you remember from way back in the day, which has us wanting to know a little bit more about Martin Truex Jr. And of course, we still have Colpern on joining us via Zoom. We've got Bono and TJ joining me here in studio. But we also have another caller in right now. And that is Josh Schneider. Now, Josh, when I introduced everybody earlier in the show, I kind of had them tell me what their

connection was to Martin. So I'm going to give you the floor to kind of. set the stage for us? Oh, well, I was Martin's first PR man. And I was fresh out of college, and he was fresh in a race car. So we kind of grew together over a couple years from 2003 to 2005 when he was in the Bush Series. And won a few championships, had a great time. Bono was our crew chief. We were just a great team. And really, some of the best times of my life came from that time period. and a lot of it was with Martin. And so that was my first job out of college

was Martin Trex Jr.'s PR guy and chance to motorsports team representative. And that was my relationship with Martin. We've continued to be friends throughout the years. That's something you think about a lot when you look back on your career and kind of your start with him. Yeah, we had a lot of fun.

It has met a lot of neat people, got lifelong friends out of it. But, you know, it's like I said, Martin and I had to grow together. I mean, it's not like when you come into this. Everybody expects a race car driver to know how to do an interview and everything right from the start. And so we had to work on a lot of that stuff together. And it really formed a tight bond there. We were a lot of things hit us in a quick amount of time at a young age.

But we had good people around it, such as Bono, J.R.O., Tim Packman, you name a few, Jade Gers, Steve Chris. that really helped guide us along the way. But that chance through team was something really special. So I don't think it could have worked out as well as it did had we all not been together like that. And that really helped Martin and I get comfortable with everyone and really with all the ends and outs of NASCAR, what you have to do is kind of a shocker. You know, you're coming from, you know, Bush North Series like you did. All of a sudden, now you're doing media days and all that.

And so I got to go along that journey with Martin. It was really cool. That's a perfect segue. for us to get into some stories. Guys, I want us to treat this kind of like a fireside chat, so I'm just going to give you the floor, and I want you to come up with, not come up with, but just tell us the best Martin Truex Jr. story

that you have in your back pocket. So, TJ, again, you shared one on DBC earlier this week, but what else do you have? Oh, man, there's so many with Martin. You know, it's funny, though, is Martin's so quiet and Josh is not. So it worked really well with those two. But, I don't know, Martin, man, once Martin has a couple drinks,

Martin is very chatty after that. But I will say, I think one time we did go on a, we went on a vacation to Cabo. Martin actually met us there. I think, John, I think they made it, they came right from a race. We were on an off week in the Cupside. Yes. And they flew in after the Xfinney race.

and so Martin and Martin was only there for like three days and then they had to leave again and man I don't think he slept the entire time and he would not let anybody else sleep either so we all get bedrooms whatever in this big house

we have and I actually found this bed in this office that pulled out of the wall and I'm like oh my gosh is awesome no one able to find me because the last thing you want to do when you hang out with this group is get found like sleeping so I find this bed and I'm sleeping in there.

And next thing, you know, the guy that runs the house that takes care of the house, like he had a little house outside, but he was there, if anything broke, to fix it or whatever. And next thing you know, like, it's late. I don't even know what time it was. Here comes this guy in here with Martin. Martin went and got this guy and had him go around the house and unlock everybody's doors to let him in.

And Martin would not let anybody sleep. So finally, he wanted to go out again. And everybody, we're all home. over like no one's moving and Martin's like well I'm going out and I'm like well you you can't go alone so me and our other buddy Sean Brawley went with Martin out and we're and me and Sean I mean we're we're we're barely moving and Martin is just running like there's I mean I don't know how he does it but yeah Martin that the crazy part was that he found everybody and just would not let you sleep I was back during his captain

captain phase. He loved his captain and Coke, and I think all that cold captain kept him jacked up. He still does. He would bounce around like crazy, man. Maybe that's why he continues to sleep in now. He's just making up for a lost time. The sleeping in thing came from when he first moved down here. He lived with Dale Jr. And Del Jr. also slept till noon. And Martin just continued the tradition. Okay. I'm sure they're appreciating us talk about all of this. Cole, I'm going to toss it to you now for your best story. Yeah, I don't know, definitely a lot of them as well.

But yeah, when we won the championship, Todd Moore, Martin's business manager put together this event. I lost a good friend of mine that season. We had a through TSN, which covers NASCAR races in Canada. They put together an event at the Hockey Hall Fame in Toronto. And Martin came up and we brought the championship trophy. It was kind of cool. We had Stanley Cup and the. NASCAR Cup Series trophy on the same table for everybody to take pictures with, which was

pretty cool. I had some guy watching the Stanley Cup. Nobody really gave a crap about the NASCAR trophy. But yeah, it was fun. And I think that night, Team Canada was playing for World Junior Gold, which is a big deal in Canada. And we were in the Hall of Fame, you know, for all that. And it was all my high school friends and Canadian racing people. And I don't know, just a bunch of people, he didn't know anybody, you know, really. And we ended up, I think we were about seven in the morning and we're in this hotel room with all my high school friends, you know, and Mark, like, just talked a lot about him just being a normal guy.

And, you know, all my friends will still talk about that. Like, you wouldn't even know when he was there. Like it was just like he was, you know, went high school with him. It was pretty sweet. And I think that's just, you know, another sign of his character. but he's just a normal guy. And, you know, that was, it's fun when you get him outside of it and get away from the glitz and the glamour,

and you see that even more. So it was something I'll always remember for sure. I think that's a lot of what fans feel about him as well. Bono. Yeah, I guess like an echoed the story of staying up all night. We race Loudoun one afternoon, and we got wrecked out. I think we got wrecked out with Kyle. and we flew from Concord to Cape Cod

and actually stayed at Todd Moore's house down to Cape and we went out to a restaurant with Martin Sr. and Jr. and Todd and we had a fishing trip planned the next morning, and we closed down this oyster pub or something. And we went back to Todd's house and we had a fire and he has an outdoor right there in the water. And next thing you know, it's Martin, senior's coming out and saying time to go fishing and we're still up at the fire pit,

you know, so we get to the boat and we go fishing. It was a, it was a, turned into this rainy cold day and junior and senior were sleeping inside and Todd and I were out there and we hooked up to a tuna and I had to get in a chair and like I said, no sleep. Up all night, Martin's sleeping away in there and at his normal hours, right, from 6 a.m. until noon. But yeah, just there's a ton of stories that we can go on, some that for surely I can't tell on here. Those are the ones we really want to hear. Well, I think we'll leave a couple of them alone. But yeah, it's, it's gobs of stories. And I think Cole said, like, he is just the same person he was yesterday as he was today. Good to see Josh on here. Josh hasn't changed a

lick. And a little more gray. I was going to say a little more gray, but You know, we did, you know, through them times, there's a story for every week, you know, so show's not long enough, but about Martin. It's, I think you're going to hear the same stories, you know, up all night, sleep all day. All right, Josh, I feel like you probably have several to share right now. Well, I do. I come back to Martin's humbleness. I remember Bass Pro Shops was our sponsor. We had Taco Bell.

I got a couple of them, I can tell. But Bass Pro Shops was a big sponsor for. It's a perfect sponsor. It's kind of cool that Martin's still sponsored by them today and won a championship with them. I think they were sponsoring all three championship cars for him. But Bass Pro Shops has this big resort called Big Cedar. And it was the first photo shoot for Martin.

And Bass Pro Shops does big catalogs and things like that. So it was a really big deal. So we go to Big Cedar, which is this unbelievable resort, little right near Branson, Missouri, little south of Bass Pro's headquarters. And they have like the Bass Pro Shops All-Stars there, like their team. You know, Martin's a huge fisherman. So we're walking out through there.

And I knew who Kevin Van Dam was, but didn't know he'd have this big of impact on Martin. So I'm like, yeah, you're going to do a photo shoot with, I don't know if it was with Kevin Van Dan or Kevin Van Dan was going to be there. We got to meet him. And he was like a kid meeting Santa Claus. I mean, he just perked up. But what was cool was is Kevin had been kind of watching, you know,

we were just getting started in the 04 season. And I believe we had just won Bristol, which was our first race. We won in the spring of 2004. And Kevin had saw that race or something like that and congratulated. Martin just thought that was the coolest thing, just to kind of go to show how humble he is. He just really took to Kevin Van Damme, and really it just kind of kicked off today.

But that's probably that. That was about 9 o'clock in the morning. That's probably the most perked up I've ever seen Martin at 9 o'clock in the morning. And that was a lot of fun. But just the number of different things with the Bass Pro Shop stories he did, going fishing with Johnny Morris in Alabama. I think that was the first time they went fishing together. and he came back and he was bragging about Johnny Morris

told him how good he could cast the old fishing go lure out there and he was pumped about that and they caught a lot of fish together and then him and Johnny from there went on to form a great friendship. So that was cool to watch a lot of that stuff and Martin's humbleness kind of come out and light and you've got to see a lot of that from him.

But from autograph sessions to stuff like that just to watch you grow through doing all that stuff and how nervous he was with the media at first, and now he just got to where he just flowed really good. Those are really cool moments. There was a lot of moments like that with Martin. You saw, too, during the first two to three years of his growth in the NASCAR. That was special to be a part of.

But the Kevin Van Damme story kind of stuck out to me because of Martin just looked up at him so much. He knew Martin was, and that was just a cool thing to see. Yeah, that's awesome. Love the stories, and I'm sure we're going to hear a lot more over the next. six months as his retirement tour will conclude in November. But if we're looking at the future for MTJ and what he's going to do after he hangs it up in November, you know, a lot of people are kind of wondering based off his presser at Iowa saying that he was done full-time.

It kind of left the door open for a part-time schedule. And our buddies from the tear down Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi also took note of this. And here's what they had to say on their podcast this week. He was very adamant. Like I think one of the first things he said is I'm retiring from full-time racing But they always say that and then a lot of times they You know no I mean like Harvard said he was gonna raise late models and stuff Yeah, said he was done with full time he said he was done with the cup

This was very much but he got asked about Daytona 500 he even mentioned on his own maybe going to run an Xfinity series race Like all of the signs pointed like Martin being around in some limited capacity Which we thought we would never see him again. Yeah like I thought he just you do a Carl Edwards like you know gone. So Dale Jr. even said he was a little skeptical on this as well. Cole, I kind of want to get your opinion because you're someone, you know, who exited the sport a couple of years ago. Do you ever have the urge to come back? And what do you see? What do you think Martin Jr. Martin Turek Jr. is going to do? Yeah, I heard he said he might race a bit, which is surprising to me, but I could see him RC boat racing more likely. I could probably be more of his time.

It's true other passion. But, yeah, I don't know. It's a, I don't know, that's a hard thing to do to, you know, come and dip your toe in the water from here and there. You know, you're going against guys that are the best in the world at that sport, doing it every week. It's hard, but maybe can, who say you can't? Yeah, I don't know.

Those deals are always, yeah, questionable, I guess. So, but for me, no, I don't know. I still do work with Gibbs and I can sit in enough meetings. to realize that I don't want to get the race track. It's a good therapy for me to keep me away. Josh, you know Martin. Do you think he's going to stay involved, maybe more than fans thought?

I see Martin hitting the R.C. boats going hunting and fishing and living the outdoors life. But he's a passionate racer, so he might dip in here and there just because, you know, I guess to get that fix, per se, but I don't know. It's like Cole said, it's tough when you're going against the best in the world part-time, and he's such a competitive guy that, I don't know.

I mean, he might just walk away, and I could just seem doing a hunting and fishing show or something like that. But I don't think it'll go away completely, but I don't know about the cup side. Probably something a little less stressful like late models or something. I don't know if he does continue racing just to get that fix in, but I see him just on a boat or in a tree stand or racing his RC boats. That has to be my top three things he's going to be doing. Is that the consensus in the studio?

I don't know. I think I could see him in, you know, the truck series, maybe going for a championship. You know, being in the truck series for six or so years now, the schedule is a good mix with, you know, I'm on, this is our third weekend off coming up. usually one day shows so I think that you know it's it's tough to go out on top like he is because he's so good you know and I think that

you know the trucks are fun it's a fun series right now I think he could I think he could potentially you know that could be an avenue to step down to get out you know slowly would that surprise you that would surprise me

yeah yeah I I don't think Martin's going to race again. I don't. I just, maybe I racing. But I think he's just, he's 20, almost 20 years in. I mean, if he's, if he's going to go out on top here, he's, you know, I hope he has a really good year this year, you know, and he walks off. But I just, I think when Martin, I think when he's done, he's done, I think he's going to go enjoy fishing and whatever he wants to do. So that's just, you know, that's my opinion.

But I just think Martin, when Martin's done, Martin's done. So if he's going to be on a boat and he's going to be in a deer stand, how are you going to get a hold of him as a friend, as somebody that's been around in his life? I mean, we know he's a texter. But how are you going to keep up with him, Bono? I just guess I don't do anything social media. So I guess just through text, you know. but he'll hunt and fish and like you said I think just will answer a text after lunch That's his breakfast

Yeah and you know he's he's very content he's always a homebody like very content being home working on his boats You know during hunting season bone arrow like it that just takes a lot of time and and so Just, he's just text away. I think you should just go to his house and wake him up. I mean, I agree. He's a homebody. He likes working on his stuff. He likes, during the pandemic, he was on his computer racing.

He was a big sim racer back in the day. I could see him doing a little bit more of that. He has his hobbies. And I do think, I do think you'll see Martin around his friends. I think you'll see him. I think we'll see him. We've had some mutual friends. He's introduced us to some of his friends from back home.

home. Adam's one of his good buddies there and we've all gotten to know Adam really well. And, you know, I didn't Adam go to Cabo with us? Oh yeah. We took Adam a lot of places. Yeah, Adam was on that trip with us. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because he was a, Adam was a world traveler like, and he had been all over the place. So we took Adam to help us adapt to other places and not get in trouble. Yeah, because he could speak a little bit of Spanish. He could speak a little bit of everything. Yeah, he was very well traveled. Yeah. Cole, how do you keep up? up with Martin even now?

Yeah, text. Pretty simple. I think when he retired, I said, congrats. He said thanks. That was our competition. So it's not like we're staying up all night expressing our feelings for each other. I don't,

yeah, I kind of see it the same. Yeah, hopefully I'm hoping he'll come up and visit when he's done. That'll be fun. Good to hang out with him. You know, a lot of hunting and fishing where I live.

So it'd be sweet. hopefully we can connect that way. Josh. What's up? Sorry, I was... That's total Josh right there. I'm just asking everybody kind of how they're going to keep up with Martin after his retirement.

Oh, Martin, no. Were you texting him? Martin, he's always good at texting back like Bowdo and I said. Don't text him before lunch. You want a quick response. But every time I send Martin a text, he's always quick to respond back. He'll shoot me a text every now and then.

he's just not much of a talker. So Texas is like the perfect way of communicating with Martin. So I shot him a little old Victory Lane picture ahead of us. I can't remember. I think it was the St. Louis race in 2005. It might have been 04 anyway. It was one of favorite Victory Lane pictures. And I told him congrats on retiring.

He shot back. That's a rad picture. You know, thanks, blah, blah, blah. Just like Cole said, you're not going to get in a deep conversation with him about your feelings or nothing. But, you know, we just always stay in touch, make sure everything's okay. And hopefully one day that, because I live in Oklahoma, we'll all be able to get together soon. I like to have a little Dirty Mo reunion per se, that 04 crowd. We all lived out there on the same Dirty Mo Acres.

So it would be cool to get that group back together. But you'll definitely just stay in touch with Martin through text messages. You know, Josh, one thing that I, that really, I'm not sure that sweatshirt is really yours because when you hung out back then and you knew it was a good night because Josh's collars were always stretched down to his middle chest because he always pulled on his collars when he was drinking

and you knew it was a good night when you got headbutted by Martin because Martin had butted almost everybody back then especially after a handful of jacked. You loved a headbut. I don't know why. I have no idea why. I mean at 3.30 in the morning next thing you know you'd have one coming right across your forehead.

It just, out. He's like, what's up, buddy? And Dale Jr. built the western town. That was the bad part because then we all hung out in there and we didn't know what time it was. And we went to bed when the sun came up because that was the bad part of it. Sounds like there's a lot more stories. There are. Thinking about Dirty Moe Acres is pretty smart what Dell Jr. did because Martin and Shone's house is right, you know, near Dirty Moe Acres.

I mean, dear to the western town and all that. But it kind of kept us all caged in in a big. couple hundred acre things that we didn't really go out and get in much trouble. We just created our trouble within Dirty Moe Acres. So I think it kept us out of a lot of trouble outside the fence per se. We need a cage. But we had a lot of good times inside the fence. We need a caged.

Sounds like y'all need to do that again. We need to be caged in at that point. Bono remembers. He was down there a lot. One time I visited. We used to have to, this 3.30 in the morning thing, and then we would go testing that day. I think I was a response when he went home early

but we used to have to send Russell to go wake Martin up to bring him to the airport and if you didn't you'd be on you'd be at the airport waiting so you know Josh was a PR guy he was supposed to wake Martin up but he also was

part of the problem but uh Boona didn't I say we grew together we did grow together we grew together but Russell was our chaperone uh Russell was our our chaperone and our guy that would he was close he lived closest to the to the to the compound there so

he was the one that always had to go wake martin up and it was anytime we had an early morning flight it was a must he he learned this came from del junior just so you know as well because we used to go out with del junior and jeff clark was the guy that would come and get del junior because there's many times we would go out uh bannies or something and at six a m jrc was and jell Jr. lived with me and another of our buddy, D. Neal for a little bit when he was redoing his house. And 6 o'clock in the morning, here comes

Jeff Clark in. And I'm like, I feel like I did just go to bed, I think. Where's Dale Jr.? We got to leave to go testing. I'm like, and yeah, so he learned that from the boss man too. Sounds like y'all need to do this again for like an NTJ

retirement party, get all back together. Yeah, we learned a lot from Dell. He learned a lot of good things from Dale Jr. also. Josh, he still pays me to podcasts.

Be careful. No, I'm just saying that junior, junior talking a lot of good stuff. I think he was a good mentor to Martin in a lot of ways.

Granted, the sleeping in thing probably wasn't too great, but he really dealt out a lot with the media and a lot of the different day-to-day things. But also,

you know, I mean, introduce Martin to a lot of new people, too. You know, and so I thought it was, there's late-night parties paid off somewhat.

Good answer. All right. Josh, we appreciate you joining us. We know you've got to get going elsewhere, but we've enjoyed talking about and celebrating Martin Trurox's junior, Martin Trux Jr.'s retirement. Also, TJ, I think you've got some plans in the making right now that you need to get to, so we'll let you go as well. Yeah, thanks for having me, and congrats to Martin, and looking forward to the rest of the year, watching you out there.

Yeah, a lot of celebration going on for Martin Truex Jr., but we're not the only ones that want to celebrate that. The fans also do, and so we're going to get to what they have to say to MTJ next in our Dell calls. So the celebration continues of Martin Truex Jr. here on DJD reloaded, and today we have also asked the fans to join in and give their messages their maybe farewell to mTJ, and that was this week's Dell call prompt. So let's go ahead and listen in to what the fans had to say. Hi, my name is Marianne, and I'm a Jersey girl. I just wanted to wish Martin True Jr., a wonderful retirement, and just let him know, thank you for all the great memories. I will always be a fan.

We hope to see him still on the track, but we will miss him full time. Again, we love you, Martin, and best of luck on your fishing tours and everything else you're doing in retirement. This is always so fun, I think, for anybody in the sport that's leaving. Cole, you kind of got this as well, too, as you kind of announced that you were going to be stepping back and fans really kind of coming out of the woodwork. and telling you how much you've meant to the sport, how special is that fan interaction going to be for Martin?

Yeah, you don't think you need it, but it's definitely nice to hear that people like you rather than hate you for sure. Yeah, I think it'll be cool for him to go through it. I think doing half a season is probably smart for him, not a full season of retirement tours. So, yeah, be good experience for him. I think he'll enjoy it at the end of the day. Martin Choic, Jr. What an amazing career you have had, my friend.

The career wins from the first win for DEI, then the ones with Michael Watson, Racing all those years ago, to all the wins with JGR to a 2017 title with Furneridge of Roe, an absolutely well-deserved first ballot Hall of Famer, in my opinion. Go get some fish, my friend. Trust me, you deserve it. I am really few of you going to win this season, buddy. Good luck to you, and God bless you, my friend. Woo!

The PJ! So many fans love him, Bono. That's a shared sentiment across the sport. I don't know if we'll hear anything negative about him the rest of the season. Yeah, I don't think so. You know, always well liked by everyone, especially New Jersey fans. You know, there's a lot of racetracks on the East Coast there, and especially Jersey that Martin raced at. But definitely the Jersey fans and all the fans.

We had, I can remember this same group of people year. after year down at Daytona that they, you know, they've come up to the window and it's the same group and just, you know, diehard Martin fans and a good group of fans and a good following he has. Yeah, Jersey fans and also Philly fans, Eagles fans, they love him because he's been vocal about his fandom of them for some time. Well, we also put out a hashtag, don't hold me to at poll on X this week as well. And we put in 2025, what is most likely for True X? What's going to happen? for his future. We have 28% say that he's going to race some. So there's some hopeful fans out there. And then over 70% say hunt, fish and repeat. And Cole, you kind of said that earlier,

but that's kind of where you're leaning toward as well for the future after racing. I could be totally wrong. But yeah, if I had to put money on it, that's what I would do. But I think, yeah, I think Exfinity maybe might be easier to kind of show up or trucks or whatever, you know, show up and run competitively, he's always, anytime he's done that, he's been fast in those things. So, yeah, it might be easier to do that rather than, you know, show up in the Cup series, cold turkey. And he's still competitive in whatever he's doing, but I know he would kind of mention that the commitment that it takes to be good and be great at the cup level. Like, he just doesn't necessarily want to put that time and effort in, which I guess is a good thing.

He puts the least amount of effort in of anything to be at that level. So I think if you look at his pay versus his effort level, he's up there for one of the best ratios in pro sports probably. Which I think speaks to his talent, right? Yeah. Like I said, it was just there. And, you know, the percentage is there. I could be totally wrong, like I said. But I think that he, I don't know if he goes to the gym now.

I don't believe he does. but he never, ever went to the gym, never put in much anything, just show up and just do it, just drive. So the effort in the trucks is, like I said, less races. And really, I think that's something he could do. But like I said, doesn't sweat and doesn't go to the gym. So I don't know, I always just got it and drove. Before we let you go today, Cole, what's something that you hope that NASCAR

I remember about Martin Truix Jr. when he was racing full-time. Like, what's the one thing that they're going to write in history books about him? I think no one can stink a show up better than him. When he's on and everything's right, nobody dominates a race like he does. And, you know, I was fortunate enough to be part of some of those, but, you know, he's still keeping it going. Hopefully he gets a couple more of those wins. Those are my favor, for sure.

What would you write? I think just one word. know simple. It's just simple man, just simple. Doesn't, doesn't expect to get a thank you, doesn't need one. Just a one word answer, like a one word text is all you kind of get. That's awesome. Well, hopefully this is just the start of his farewell tour this season. Again, 19 more races left and a lot of memories to make for that 19 team and for Martin Trurox Jr. We hope you enjoyed this episode of DJD Relo. Before we let you go, first want to thank Bono. Thank you for your time for joining us all day. Cole, thanks so much for calling in. And of course, we have tons of

Dirty Mo Media podcasts out this week. We've got the teardown with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. Hear that firsthand reaction after the race at Iowa this weekend. Actions Detramental with Denny Hamlin. Door bumper clear. Another great episode with all of those guys. Never not entertaining to listen to that show. And then the Dale Jr. Download with Paul Andrews. That was quite an emotional episode this week. But so very good. So be sure. to go and check that episode out. We've also got Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. And of course, Dirty Mo Doe.

Tune in for that, know where the bets are coming and where you should place your money this week ahead of Loudon. That's going to do it for us on DJD Reloaded. We'll see you next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.