Martin Truex Jr. continues to be at his best on NASCAR’s biggest stages this season. She began things by winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend.
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And it’s been a soggy ride for Sprint Cup teams in recent weeks as weather once more engulfed NASCAR.
“Definitely, Darlington being one of the tougher race tracks we go to, that makes us a little bit anxious to get out there and get rolling this weekend”, Buescher said. “This is just the beginning for us, I think”.
The biggest problem on Sunday was an air gun failure that dropped Harvick from the lead to outside the top 10.
It was Truex’s second win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and the fourth of his Cup career.
Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing auto was the fastest in the field for most of Sunday night, but his pit crew was the pits.
When they pitted, 17 other cars remained on-track to take a wave-around and get back on the lead lap.
Truex pulled to the inside wall to greet his crew, then took off for some celebration donuts at “The Track Too Tough To Tame”.
This all came to a delayed halt during a pit stop with 85 laps to go, when Harvick dropped to 12th from the race lead after a broken right-rear pit gun demolished Harvick’s precious track position. “With that said, we’ve got two (victories) and I really feel like we’ve got a legitimate shot at this championship”.
“I was born and raised just across a few swamps from here you know”, Yarborough said. “They get paid a lot of money to do their jobs”. Keselowski ran second, Chase Elliott was third, and Logano and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
Crew chief Cole Pearn guided Regan Smith to victory lane here in 2011.
Truex, who made last year’s championship Chase and is locked in this year, is no surprise – and may have stamped himself a significant contender for the Sprint Cup crown.
It was worth the wait.
Kevin Harvick’s repeated stumbles on pit road, allowed Martin Truex Jr.to take advantage and win his second race of the season.
With most cars already having pitted before the yellow flag, only three drivers – Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott – were scored as the top-three and the only drivers on the lead lap at the time of caution, still needing to pit. His crew brought the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports machine behind the wall for a 33rd-place finish. He has a 24.4 average finish over the last five races, and considering he starts 34th, he should be able to pad his final score with some place differential bonus points.
Scott said he stuck his hand out the window to waive Stewart by, but he thought Stewart might have mistaken it for giving him the finger.
On Lap 203, Brian Scott was four laps down when Stewart attempted to pass him. When that didn’t work at first, Stewart looked like he nudged Scott’s bumper and sent him spinning. More important, they are the household names for NASCAR, the ones who move the needle and make people pay attention. The race comes at a time when the NASCAR Chase for the Cup standings are starting to heat up, even as some drivers have stepped away for the season.
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In all, 36 of 40 race teams will feature some type of paint scheme.
