The sound of generators replaced an otherwise empty infield at the Darlington Raceway a few days ago, now almost every empty space is filled with campers and race fans. “Just couldn’t be more excited to win at Darlington – Southern 500, we won it”.
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Logano, who completed a honey-do list from wife Brittany with his down time, had hoped to be at Darlington to enjoy the throwback festivities as 36 of 40 teams are using special paint schemes to honor NASCAR history.
After winning his second race of the season, Martin Truex Jr. has confidence heading into the Chase.
The entire NASCAR world took a step back into the past for Sunday night’s Sprint Cup Series race. I feel we have a lot of resources and we’ve moved people around, like I said.
“We’ve been one of the fastest, if not the fastest, all summer long”, Truex said. To lead the most miles of any NASCAR race (at Charlotte) ever, I mean, you just think about the names, the names that have been come and gone and paved the way for us drivers. Truex, Jr. held off Kevin Harvick after a final restart with 12 laps to go and pulled away to collect his fifth-career Sprint Cup win. “The pit crew was flawless tonight”, said Truex.
When they pitted, 17 other cars remained on-track to take a wave-around and get back on the lead lap.
However, with a poor pit stop on lap 280, Harvick lost important track position and had to restart 12 after entering pit road while in the lead. He closed the season by outracing Harvick on Labor Day weekend for his second crown jewel win of the season and his first Sprint Cup victory at the old, egg-shaped oval.
“We’ve prepped all this year to try and make it to Homestead again and win the championship, so that’s definitely the goal”, crew chief Cole Pearn said.
“I’m over being a cheerleader”, said Harvick. “Those guys get paid a lot of money to perform on pit road and cheerleading really hasn’t been working”, he said.
“Same old thing. You get in a position where you bring a dominant vehicle – the guys in the shop and the guys in the garage are doing a great job and the guys on pit road are doing a awful job”, Harvick said.
Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson are the only two drivers not named Kevin Harvick who have finished inside the top-ten in the last two races at Darlington Raceway. Joey Logano was fifth, followed by Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott. Regan Smith won for the organization in 2011.
It was the second win of the season for Truex, the first time he has scored multiple Cup victories in a season and also the first time that the single-car Furniture Row Racing team has scored more than one win a season. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver led 45 laps and felt good about running up front for a second straight race. He was called pass-through penalty after his crew made a modification on pit road NASCAR didn’t like, then fell two laps down.
It has been a while since Johnson has dominated a race, but he showed signs of a return to form at Indianapolis and MI. Morale can not be very high among the over-the-wall crew. Sep. “I was trying to let Tony (Stewart) go there and I think he got inside of me and got loose there”. Scott thought Stewart was mad at him and ran into him on objective. Scott thought Stewart was mad at him and ran into him on objective. “I wasn’t”, Scott said.
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XFINITY: In Darlington, S.C., Elliott Sadler won for the first time at Darlington Raceway, holding off defending champion Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
