In the previous three, Truex had finishes of second (Daytona 500), first (Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte) and eighth (Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis) for a four-race average finish of 3.0.
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Martin Truex Jr. took the lead with 28 laps to go and held off Kevin Harvick on the final restart to win the Southern 500 on Sunday night. “A big thank you to Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and everybody that makes this thing happen – it’s just an incredible partnership, fantastic teammates over at Joe Gibbs Racing that we share information with”. “We’ll do some celebrating tonight”.
“I am not sure what he thought was going on there”, Scott said.
It was Johnson’s ninth finish outside the top 10 in his past 12 races – not the form his team hoped to have in chasing a seventh Sprint Cup title.
“It’s been a good season”, Truex said.
Darlington had always been one of Truex’s better tracks, but you wouldn’t necessarily have said that Sunday night. Then late in the race he tagged the wall and while still being able to maintain his up front status, it might have had a big hand in his inability to chase down Truex at the end.
It’s the second time in the past six Southern 500s that single-car Furniture Row Racing wound up in Victory Lane.
Chris Buescher, with one win, is still hanging on to his top-30 position in points with one race left in the regular season. “You’ve got to take the highs when they’re here and then get back to work. Southern 500 – been wanting to win this thing for a long time”. He finished 15th Sunday, but saw his lead over Ryan Newman shrink from 15 to seven points.
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.
“This is unbelievable”, said Truex to NASCAR.
A TASTE OF SUCCESS: Kyle Larson almost made it two straight wins before finishing third Sunday. “All in all, it was good to be a contender two weeks in a row”, he said.
Labor Day weekend has been celebrated the last two years in NASCAR as a throwback to its earlier days, when the racing was rougher and the men were tougher and drivers didn’t hide from fans or media in million dollar motorhomes. Stewart drove the red-and-gold Coca-Cola auto patterned like the one Bobby Allison steered to victory at the Southern 500 in 1971 and ’72.
Drivers often make telephone calls or send test messages to take responsibility for a hard pass or a mistake that triggers anger between teams.
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A victor of the Daytona 500 and Sprint Cup Series points championship, Harvick still leads the Sprint Cup Points standings via a 43-point margin over Brad Keselowski. Earnhardt has heard others wonder if it is better for him to walk away instead of coming back. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
