He closed the season by outracing Harvick on Labor Day weekend for his second crown jewel win of the season.
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Truex stamped himself as a contender to be reckoned with when the Sprint Cup playoffs start in two weeks. “Cole Pearn (crew chief), I mean these guys are just wonderful”, said Truex on NBC after the race.
Kevin Harvick started the race in the pole position, and led for 214 of the race’s 367 laps.
On the second one, with 85 to go, he went in leading and came out in 12th after a 16.6-second stop. Chase Elliot, Ryan Blaney, and Brad Keselowski all had a chance to win with the former two still needing a win to cement their spot in the Chase.
Last week’s victor at Michigan, Kyle Larson, finished third and Denny Hamlin was fourth. Keselowski ran second, Chase Elliott was third, and Logano and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
But Sadler held strong through the final turns and crossed in front to earn the checkered flag at Darlington for the first time in 32 career starts – 18 in Sprint Cup, 13 in Xfinity and one in the truck series.
“We never lost confidence, I don’t think”, said Truex. “I’ve always loved this racetrack”. This is Auto-Owners Insurance second race with us this year and one more at Martinsville, so really proud to get them in victory lane. Regan Smith won for the organization in 2011.
Harvick could not overcome his shoddy pit showing and was frustrated with his team. “I’m really proud of the vehicle that we brought tonight and the things that we’ve done on the race track, but you can only make so many excuses for pit road”.
Truex isn’t lying when he said he could have won several races this year.
Jimmie Johnson paced opening practice at Darlington with a lap at 176.025 miles per hour, followed by Denny Hamlin (175.060 mph) and Sunoco rookie Ryan Blaney (174.711 mph). Sunday night but was extremely upset afterward about the mistakes made on pit road. Scott slid and inadvertently blocked Stewart, who turned the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford into the wall. It was Johnson’s ninth finish outside the top 10 in his last 12 races, not the form his team hoped to have in chasing a seventh Sprint Cup title.
Stewart and Scott made contact and as Stewart gathered his vehicle on the inside of the track, he chose to swing back up and clip the left corner of Scott sending him spinning to the inside wall. Maybe he thought I was giving him the finger or something.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion and I think everybody has their own way of going about their business”, Elliott said. More important, they are the household names for NASCAR, the ones who move the needle and make people pay attention.
Stewart and his crew chief were summoned to the NASCAR hauler after the race. In his first year at Furniture Row Racing in 2014, he led one lap.
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THROWBACK CITY: The Southern 500’s second straight throwback-themed weekend again looked like a success. Harvick’s pit crew battled slow stops all night, losing over 15 positions throughout the night. Kyle Larson also flirted with the lead after stealing it from Denny Hamlin with 83 laps to go. “With the Chase coming, get that confidence up and another win in the pocket”.
