In mid-January Kaulig Racing made the surprising announcement that Blake Koch was out of the No. 11 Chevrolet and Truex was in for the 2018 season. Truex is the younger brother of Cup Series champion, Martin Truex Jr., and he spent much of last season racing in the Camping World Truck Series. He had easily his most successful season of NASCAR racing in 2017, collecting 13 Top-10 finishes and finishing ninth in the standings for Hattori Motorsports. Now he'll take over this up-and-coming team's Chevrolet. Koch piloted this team to five Top-10 finishes in each of the last two seasons and seventh- and 11th-place standings finishes respectively. Kaulig now looks to Truex to elevate this single-car team to the next level in 2018.

In a bit of a surprise it was announced in January that Truex's ride in the truck series was turning from part to full-time. Hattori Motorsports will field the No. 81 Toyota for the full 23-race schedule. Truex claimed four Top 10's last season in 15 starts for this same race team. Sponsorship and crew chief are not certain at this point, but it looks like the team is committed to run the full schedule. Truex is talented and he can take this growing race team to new heights. However, we expect they'll be a few bumps in the road along the way. The larger and intermediate ovals were where this team really shined last season.

Truex signed in February 2016 to race for the No. 81 team of Hattori Racing Enterprises.

Truex is a free agent driver in 2013.