Kevin Harvick had seen enough from his NASCAR Sprint Cup over-the-wall crew following another subpar effort on Sunday night in the Southern 500 at Darlington Racweway. It was Truex’s second victory of the season and fifth-career win.
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“This is unbelievable”, Truex said. “So many people to thank obviously. He’s always raced me really clean”. The pit crew was flawless tonight.
“We were the fastest auto on the long run every time”. They took a lot of heat from last week with what happened. The only crew from the four-car organization not slated to make the playoffs is the one that works with Danica Patrick.
“We have championship cars and we’re just mediocre on pit road”, Harvick said. “I’ve been wanting to win this thing a long time”. Pretty much summed up the night. Twice he entered as the leader only to come out 8th and 12th.
Kevin Harvick: Led the 10,000th lap of is career during the race, joining Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth as only active drivers to lead that many.
I mean, Truex was good, don’t get me wrong, but he wasn’t driving with Harvickian aplomb.
“Yeah, we had a great vehicle”, Harvick said after the race. “This is such a fun weekend with the throwback stuff”, Larson said. If you closed your eyes, your mind slipped back to days gone by.
After starting on the pole, Harvick dominated until the yellow flag waved, interrupting a cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 94 for a spin by Trevor Bayne.
That cushion, though, was erased by a second caution for Brian Scott and Casey Mears on lap 115. That included keeping Harvick at bay on a restart on Lap 355 and winning by several auto lengths. It wasn’t until around 180 did someone finally collect the stripe when Ryan Blaney in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford had to pit with a flat tire, however, it did not bring out a caution. He reached the final race in Homestead previous year among the last four standing and thinks everyone in the program has worked to improve their chances. Smoke was a little squirrely coming out of turn two and after clearing Scott came back up and turned the 44, possibly intentionally. 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.
THE BIG ONE: That involved Tony Stewart, too. I was pointing him to the inside to let him go. “I was fighting to get them back”. “I’m not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up”. Stewart and Scott had just made contact as Stewart was trying to pass the rookie, who was already several laps off the pace. His race ended with an engine issue on Lap 317 and Stewart headed straight to the garage, ending his full-time Cup career without a Southern 500 win. Everybody is slipping and sliding a lot. It was his third DNF of the season after missing the first eight events of 2016.
The 2014 Sprint Cup champion said it was time for the crew to perform.
“We were just in a bad situation”.
When asked what his view of the incident with Scott was, he simply said, “He wrecked”.
Truex’s most recent win came Memorial Day, May 29, in Charlotte at the Coca Cola 600.
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Harvick attempted to rally but couldn’t finish it off, having to settle for second in a race where he led 214 of the 367 laps. He finished 17 and padded his lead over David Ragan in 31st to 11.
