With Tropical Storm Hermine out of the area many NASCAR fans are excited for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sunday. Despite winning two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, Harvick says his team needs to step up approaching the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
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This time, Martin Truex Jr.’s pit crew was flawless while Kevin Harvick’s, once again, was far from it. While Truex has been running well for much of the season, he certainly hadn’t been as much of a contender as he had been earlier in the season.
“I have a lot of respect for Tony and he has always raced me really clean”, Scott said.
“I feel bad. We’ve changed people there”. While Truex set records in his dominating win at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600 in May, he’s led over 100 laps in three other races without notching another victory until Sunday night.
The three big names who have moved the needle for NASCAR the past two decades have a combined seven championships, 168 career Cup wins and five Daytona 500 victories.
But Gordon called past year his last, only to be called back to the race vehicle in late July when a concussion knocked Earnhardt out for the season.
Truex did what he was supposed to do, which was race the track and then the drivers.
It was a dominant night for Kevin Harvick, as he led 214 laps, but pit road mistakes cost him the win.
Ryan Newman led Chase-bubble drivers at Darlington with a eighth-place finish. “I’m over being a cheerleader. A lot of them have been out of our control and [the] pit crews did a great job, but they did stumble last week and this is a heck of a way to make it up”. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kenseth complete the top 10.
It’s the second time in the past six Southern 500s that single-car Furniture Row Racing wound up in Victory Lane. Regan Smith stunned the Sprint Cup garage in 2011 with his win here.
If you’re filling out your Chase bracket, you’d be remiss not to put Truex in your final four.
“It was definitely worth the wait”, he said. Kyle Larson, days after his first Sprint Cup win, was third and challenging. The veteran driver would lead 28 of the final 29 laps and cruise to the win over Harvick.
Fastest in all three practices, Dixon topped the Fast Six on Saturday with a track-record time of 1 minute, 22.5259 seconds at 147.008 miles per hour. His crew brought the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports machine behind the wall.
Harvick took to social media on Tuesday to illustrate in GIF form his mentality for the remaining 11 races of 2016.
Jeff Gordon is mostly retired and Tony Stewart is nearly out the door.
On Lap 203, Brian Scott was four laps down when Stewart attempted to pass him. He then drove into the rear quarterpanel of Scott’s auto, causing him to spin. “I am not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up there. I’m not going to give him any breaks”. “I had no chance to do anything”, Custer said. The move also picqued NASCAR’s interest. Stewart and his crew chief, Michael Bugarewicz, were immediately notified by NASCAR to report to their trailer after the race.
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“This is unbelievable”, said Truex to NASCAR.
