Following his win in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, Martin Truex Jr. confirmed that he will run in this month’s Camping World Truck Series race on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Truex will drive a Kyle Busch Motorsports entry in the March 27 race, one day before the Cup Series runs its first dirt race since 1970 on Bristol’s high-banked half mile.
Answering an initial question on the subject, Truex said he would “probably” do some form of dirt racing prior to the March 28 Cup race.
But another reporter later told Truex that one of his sponsors, Auto-Owners Insurance, had revealed the Bristol Truck dirt race on its event schedule in an Instagram post.
“Damn, they spilled the beans?,” Truex replied to laughter. “Okay, yeah, we are. We’re going to run the truck race. ... I’ll run Kyle’s truck. He said I could drive it for free, so I did it.”
Truex only has two career Truck starts, one apiece in 2005 and 2006. Both starts were for now-defunct Billy Ballew Motorsports.
“I’m excited about it,” Truex said. “I’ve only raced twice on dirt. Both of them were at (Ken) Schrader’s (track), having a charity race out in Missouri. I did that a few times in a modified. That was the only times I raced on dirt, after growing up on four-wheelers and motorcycles.
“It’s going to be a learning curve, for sure. I look at it as Bristol has been our worst track for the past couple years. Why the heck not lay down dirt and see what we can do? I think it’s going to be fun. New challenge, something different.”
Truex is the latest Cup driver to announce plans to run the Bristol Truck dirt race, joining Kevin Harvick with David Gilliland Racing and Chase Briscoe with Roper Racing.
Next weekend, Truex will make a rare Xfinity Series appearance at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Joe Gibbs Racing. Truex won the Xfinity titles in 2004 and 2005, but has not made a start in the series since 2010.