Truex finished strong Sunday at Darlington Speedway, holding off Kevin Harvick to win the Southern 500, one of the sport’s signature races.
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Kyle Larson: Backed up first victory of his career last week with a third-place finish.
Check out a complete look at all of my season-long fantasy NASCAR lineups, and check out the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET on NBC. You talk to the old-timers and the guys that have been around a while they’ll tell you ‘yeah, Daytona’s great, but you wanted to win the Southern 500.’ That was where the men won.
“We were supposed to get married in the winner’s circle but because of so much rain they allowed us to do it in the museum”, said Cooper. But just a big weekend for us to – we’ve had a bad string of back luck.
Crew chief Cole Pearn said winning two crown jewel races in a season is something special, but the team’s focus is on the championship Chase that starts at Chicagoland Speedway in two weeks. The three-time Darlington victor has six finishes of fourth or better in the last ten races here, including three in his last four.
Harvick’s chance at taking the checkered flag was pretty much wiped out when he lost a total of 17 positions in the pits, one more deviating than the next.
“Here tonight they had really solid stops the first half of the race, did everything they needed to do and then the gun breaks and everybody tries to make up for everything”.
Harvick was asked how he balances the positive and with tough criticism for his team.
At that point, Harvick had led 213 of the first 283 laps.
Truex Jr. was able to capitalise on an error from Kevin Harvick, who appeared certain for victory at the Darlington Raceway in SC.
“Yeah, we had a great vehicle”, Harvick said.
“Dale senior use to beat his doors in coming around that corner on turn four, you get more aerodynamics on his vehicle to be able to win the races”. He finished second a year ago after leading a whopping 196 laps and returns to Darlington Raceway with some momentum, finishing inside the top-ten in eight of his last 12 races this season. From there, however, Harvick could not chase Truex down and was forced to settle for second.
Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliott rounded out the rest of the Top-10 finishers.
There were lots of problems for others throughout the night, including one that cost Tony Stewart a summons to the NASCAR hauler for a conversation with officials after the race. On lap 214, Johnson spun out and slid into the inside wall. I lost two or three spots every restart for the first five or six laps, and then it would kick in and off I would go. He then drove into the rear quarterpanel of Scott’s vehicle, causing him to spin.
“I’m over being a cheerleader”, he said. “He’s always raced me really clean”.
Harvick said after the race that he’s exhausted of being a cheerleader for his struggling crew.
This team certainly had no problem celebrating a win even if it didn’t have the best vehicle.
“These guys get paid good money”, he said. It was sweet redemption for him at the 1.366-mile track where in 10 previous career starts he had led a total of almost 100 laps but the best finish he could manage was fifth. Drivers starting up front tend to excel at this track, and when he started on the pole in 2014, he won the race in dominating fashion. “There are other issues, I guess is what I’m alluding to without getting into detail”. It’s just that people need a reason to care, and listening to a driver reel off a list of sponsors between praising downforce and tire wear isn’t the sexiest sell. I feel like we let a few slip away, for sure.
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“There’s a lot of history at this place and we’re honored to help NASCAR celebrate that, ” Tharp said.
