Truex led the final 28 laps and held off Kevin Harvick’s powerhouse vehicle to win the Southern 500, closing the summer season with a second of Sprint Cup’s “crown jewel” races on Labor Day weekend.
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Kyle Larson: Backed up first victory of his career last week with a third-place finish.
NASCAR docked Ryan Newman 15 points because his vehicle failed post-race inspection at Darlington Raceway.
“We never lost confidence, I don’t think”, said Truex. We’ve had super-fast race cars.
Courtney Force won the Funny Car portion of the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout and Matt Hagan topped qualifying Sunday in the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway.
“We have championship cars and we’re just mediocre on pit road”, Harvick said. They’ll have a bad stop and come back and have a good stop.
Hamlin was first off pit road during the yellow flag but lost the lead to Larson soon after the restart. They won us the race.
Harvick was asked how he balances the positive and with tough criticism for his team. “We were absolutely pile-driving them all night and then we gave it away”, Harvick said immediately after the race, in which he led 214 of the 367 laps but finished runner-up to Martin Truex Jr.
When Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola tangled shortly thereafter, destroying Almirola’s handsome No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports throwback auto, Harvick caught a break.
It’s not the first time Harvick has been outspoken about his pit crew. Harvick says he’s been understanding, patient and supportive but is not seeing the results he needs to contend for a second championship in three seasons. He battled back toward the top, but could not chase down Truex. It is also his fifth career victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Stewart and Scott had just made contact as Stewart was trying to pass the rookie, who was already several laps off the pace.
“Yeah, we had a great vehicle”, Harvick said to NASCAR.
Scott was anxious that Stewart mistook his waive-by for the middle finger despite their relatively clean history competing against each other. “If I had been in the same spot, he would have done the same thing to me to get a win”.
“I wish it would happen a lot more often. He’s always raced me really clean”. Stewart and his crew chief, Michael Bugarewicz, were immediately notified by NASCAR to report to their trailer after the race. It is uncertain for now if Stewart and his team will be penalized anything because of the incident. Twenty-four percent said good. 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.
CHASE CHATTER: With one race left before NASCAR’s playoffs, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray remain the final three winless drivers who would qualify for the 16-team field.
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It remains to be seen what Harvick can do for this season.
