Truex led the final 28 laps and held off Kevin Harvick’s powerhouse vehicle to win the Southern 500, closing the summer season with a second of Sprint Cup’s “crown jewel” races on Labor Day weekend.
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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.
In turn, he would have the track position to challenge for the lead when Kevin Harvick had some trouble on pit road during the final pit stops.
It was Truex’s second win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and the fourth of his Cup career. She began things by winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend. I feel like we let a few slip away, for sure. He rallied back each time.
The one that did Harvick in was on the seventh caution when he led going into pit road and came out in 12th.
LeeRoy Yarbrough (1969), David Pearson (1976) and Jeff Gordon (1997) are the only other drivers to win the three biggest races. Brad Keselowski was the leader on the restart on Lap 104.
When Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola tangled shortly thereafter, destroying Almirola’s handsome No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports throwback auto, Harvick caught a break. Several drivers that had been in contention found themselves a lap down.
The incident occurred on lap 203 as Scott, who was running four laps down, slid in front of the three-time Sprint Cup champion. It was a positive move for Richard Childress Racing’s drivers, two of whom had encountered problems early. Buescher can’t afford to drop out of the top 30 at Richmond or he won’t make the Chase. He finished 15th Sunday, but saw his lead over Ryan Newman shrink from 15 to seven points.
SMOKE WILL BE MISSED: Tony Stewart will leave Sprint Cup without a victory at Darlington after finished 35th on Sunday night when his engine overheated and he went behind the wall.
He was in vintage form Sunday night at Darlington Raceway, where he seemed to intentionally wreck Brian Scott in a move that earned him a post-race sit-down with NASCAR’s bigwigs.
On one, an air gun malfunctioned and chief Rodney Childers ordered a crew member to go to Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Danica Patrick’s pit to get another.
“If you have an issue, you talk about it, you get it behind you and you go on to the next race”, Bayne said. “The pit crew was flawless tonight – they won the race”. He was called pass-through penalty after his crew made a modification on pit road NASCAR didn’t like, then fell two laps down. And then he spun.
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The field first cycled through green-flag stops just before lap 50. But with the Chase looming, it’s taken on an even more critical meaning. He has a 24.4 average finish over the last five races, and considering he starts 34th, he should be able to pad his final score with some place differential bonus points.
