14 Days 'Til Daytona - Today's Featured Driver: Martin Truex Jr.

In case you missed it, StatChat is counting down the days ‘til the 2021 Daytona 500.  Every two days, we will have a new article featuring one of the Top 30 Drivers of 2020. 

 

7th Place – Martin Truex Jr. – 2341 pts

 

By the Numbers:

 

5 Stage Wins – Martin Truex Jr. has the most career stage wins of any driver with 43.  Truex became so synonymous with winning stages, it grew into meme-like status.  “Stage Winner MTJ, C’mon,” was a commonly repeated phrase across the internet.  However, 2020 was a down year in this particular discipline, as he only won 5 – the lowest number he has won in a single season.

 

5 3rd Place Finishes in a Row – From July 23rdto August 16th, Martin Truex Jr. was the most consistent driver in the Cup Series.  Part of an even longer streak of 8 Top 5s in a row, in a crazy turn of events, he scored 5 3rd place finishes in a row.  Martin wound up scoring 14 Top 5s through the course of the season.

 

5th Most Laps Led – Martin Truex Jr. finished 2020 with 950 laps led, fifth best of all drivers.  He was actually holding on to 4thplace up until the final race of the season at Phoenix, where Brad Keselowski led 16 laps to pass him (Keselowski finished with 952).

  

5th Best Average Points – He might not have won as many stages in 2020, but Martin Truex Jr. still collected a lot of stage points.  Despite finishing 7th place overall, Truex had the 5th best average points per race, with 34.11.  He had the best average points per race of all drivers who didn’t make the final 4.

 

5thMost % Laps Run in Top 15 – Joe Gibbs Racing was the most consistent team of 2020, with JGR drivers always bringing speed to the track.  Truex Jr. spent 76.7% of his 2020 season in the Top 15, which was 5th best of all Cup Series drivers.  Maybe most surprising is that MTJ had the highest percentage of all of the Joe Gibbs drivers, including Denny Hamlin who had 6 more wins.

 

Despite a rumor started by a bogus Twitter account that Martin Truex Jr. was going to retire, he confirmed that he will return to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota in 2021.

 

Coming up in two days – Alex Bowman

 

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