Martin Truex Jr.’s Family ‘Screwed Up’ Not Attending Race In New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. -- Martin Truex Jr. said it was "well worth the wait" to finally clinch a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after 29 previous attempts.

As a New Jersey native, Truex spent a lot of time at the track in Loudon with his father Martin Sr., a retired Busch North Series driver.

"Thinking back to when I was a kid coming here and watching him win here in '94," Truex explained. "... All the Busch North guys back in the day, they were legends of the Northeast. They were all my heroes."

On the hometown track, you would expect Truex to be surrounded by his family in victory lane, right? Well, not exactly.

"Yeah, nobody was here today," Truex said. "This is actually kind of far from home. We used to drive up here seven and a half hours or something like that. But nobody's here. They're all home. So, yeah, they screwed up."

Truex laughed about his family not being at the track as he continued down NHMS memory lane.

"They're all home. So, yeah, they screwed up."

NASCAR Cup Series driver Martin Truex Jr.

"(My father) gave me great opportunities," Truex said. "He was going to run a couple of Busch North races in 2000 and I was gonna run, not full-time, but I ran the first couple.

"He ran the first race here and then after that stopped racing altogether. He's like, 'You're too good. I need to give you my best cars, and the best equipment I have, and put everything behind you.' ... I owe a lot of this to him."

Truex paused to gather his thoughts before continuing.

"It's crazy to think back," Truex said. "That was 23 years ago. What has been between then and now and to be right here again at this track with just a huge accomplishment today. With a great performance from my team just brings back a lot of memories of what this place means to me and to my career."

Besides watching his father win at NHMS in 1994, his other favorite memory from the track belonged to a competitor.

"My dad was running his car (in a race) and his car was parked in the garage nose-to-nose with Dale Earnhardt's car," Truex said. "Dale was running in that race and just getting to see his car in the garage up close.

"I actually seen him up under the fender working on the carburetor, which back in the day used to be something that a lot of the drivers did. And just seeing that was really cool because he was one of my favorite drivers growing up."

Pretty sure his win on the Magic Mile has become a new favorite memory.