End of the full-time road: 1-on-1 with Martin Truex Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. will retire from full-time Cup Series racing following the season finale Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

He still plans to race and is expected to attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 in a fourth 23XI Racing car next year. 

But don't expect the relatively introverted Truex to be hanging out at the track all that much. The 44-year-old has been racing in Cup full-time since 2006 and values his alone time.

He also values his career with 34 Cup wins and one Cup title — all but two of the wins coming in his 10th Cup season or later. Truex has driven for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Furniture Row Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Four of those organizations (all except JGR) closed while he was driving for them. Truex won back-to-back Xfinity titles in 2004-2005 driving for Chance 2 Motorsports, the precursor to JR Motorsports.

Truex talked with FOX Sports prior to last weekend's race at Martinsville about his career and semi-retirement outlook: 

Are you getting emotional at all?

No, not at all. I'm excited. I'm feeling good and trying to enjoy these last two weeks (Martinsville and Phoenix).

Is what you want at Phoenix to just have a good day? 

I'd like to spoil the championship party. You'd love to win that thing. It's happened before. We've been pretty good there. And hopefully, we can find something a little bit extra and go there. Going out with a win would be the most amazing thing ever short of a championship, obviously, which is impossible. But just want to go have fun and enjoy the last race with the team.

Is there anything you're going to do special at Phoenix? 

I don't know. We've been talking about it. Maybe throw an old-school little get-together at the