“This is unbelievable”, said Truex to NASCAR. “Cole Pearn (crew chief), I mean these guys are just awesome”, said Truex on NBC after the race. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career, but something always happens, and I’m so proud to get to Victory lane with this group.
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When a driver wins two of the most historic races in a year, the driver will look back and think of it as cool.
“I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time, ” Sadler crowed after. Hamlin’s #11 Toyota will carry a scheme honoring Darrell Waltrip as the vehicle resembles Waltrip’s 1984 Junior Johnson ride. “He taught his boy everything he knew but it’s just not the same without Junior being here”, Kenyon said. “I can’t believe that about a foot from doing it is incredible. There’s so many things about this year that have been special, and that’s one of them”.
“Of course this is the first one that we have been too that Junior hasn’t been here”, mentioned Owens. He has won five poles this season, the most of any driver. “I was fighting to get them back”.
Kevin Harvick owned the field at Darlington, but pit-road follies thwarted his route to Victory Lane. “Those guys get paid a lot of money to perform on pit road, and cheerleading hasn’t really been working”.
“Our team in the garage did a great job”, Harvick said.
“I’m thankful just to race here, and to get a chance to win here is just icing on the cake”.
“You have a couple good weeks here and there and every once in a while you just put together a day, but they just can’t put together a whole day on pit road right now”.
“We were just in a bad situation”.
Truex had never won multiple races in a season in his career until now.
It remains to be seen what Harvick can do for this season.
Martin Truex Jr. made the Chase last season and advanced to the final four at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
His race ended short of the finish when Stewart’s overheating engine finally expired 49 laps from the end. He also led laps from 339-350 for a total of 28 for the race. Fast facts: Moffitt finished third, second and first at Pocono, Bristol and MI, respectively.
Race time is scheduled for 6 p.m.
The weather forecast for the remainder of the weekend is improved, which was about the only good NASCAR news to come out on Friday, as that’s the day NASCAR announced popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not race again this season. At Michigan, the final restart allowed Larson to overtake Elliott, leaving Elliott to finish second. He has 414 laps led which is second-most per start at the track (41.4) behind Gordon (49.8). He battled back toward the top, but could not chase down Truex. It was just frustrating to lead laps throughout my career here. (31) Chris Buescher, Ford, 367. 18. Harvick did all he could throughout the final couple laps, but in the end didn’t have enough to regain the lead.
GOING GREEN: The first 95 laps of the race were run under green-flag conditions, a rarity at tight Darlington, where wrecks are considered part of the race-day fabric.
By the time Harvick pitted, he had a large enough lead that he managed to maintain that lead throughout the cycle.
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