DALE JR. COMEBACK: Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke at Darlington Raceway about three hours before the Southern 500 and two days after announcing ongoing recovery from a concussion had ended his season pledging that he intends to return to the Sprint Cup Series next February at the Daytona 500.
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The return of throwback weekend at Darlington brought back memories for fans and members of NASCAR.
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) – Martin Truex Jr. has already won two of NASCAR’s most coveted races. They now seek a bigger fish.
Martin Truex Jr. claimed his second win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season Sunday night with a victory in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The first time was another crown jewel race at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 back on Memorial weekend in May.
With only Richmond remaining before the start of the Chase, Harvick and Childers hope to have their pit-road issues cleared up before September 18 in Chicago for the beginning of the Round of 16.
“We’ve had a string of awful bad luck lately”, Truex said in Victory Lane.
“We never lost confidence, I don’t think”, said Truex.
Truex led 28 laps, all after passing Ryan Newman for the top spot on Lap 339 of 367. “The pit crew was flawless tonight”, said Truex. “You get in position where you bring a dominant auto”.
Harvick, despite his problems, eventually settled for second place. The No.4 machine was running strong on track, but his pit crew kept faltering on pit road.
“I’m through with being a cheerleader”, he said of his crew. “You know at this point those guys get paid a lot of money to perform on pit road”.
“Dale senior use to beat his doors in coming around that corner on turn four, you get more aerodynamics on his vehicle to be able to win the races”.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule heads to Darlington today for the Southern 500, as the stock vehicle auto racing circuit takes a tour through its own history at the pioneering SC race track. Regan Smith stunned the Sprint Cup garage in 2011 with his win here.
“We’ve prepped all this year to try and make it to Homestead again and win the championship, so that’s definitely the goal”, crew chief Cole Pearn said.
WHO’S HOT: Kyle Larson followed up his win at MI last week with a third-place at Darlington.
Harvick reclaimed the lead from Keselowski on lap 144 and began pulling away from the rest of the field.
Jimmie Johnson had troubles at a track where he has won three times. Too many times it has seen pit-road mistakes or mechanical gremlins ruin a potential winning run. Scott slid and inadvertently blocked Stewart, who turned the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford into the wall. While Truex and his team certainly didn’t dominate Sunday night, they were in the top five for much of the race, and are hoping to carry that momentum right into the postseason.
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When told of NASCAR’s demand, Stewart said, “Hey man, made it 25 races, I’d say that’s pretty good”.
