Truex shakes bad luck, wins Southern 500 at Darlington

For Truex, it was his first career win at the iconic track. For team owner Barney Visser, it was his second Southern 500 victory and the organization’s fourth career win overall.

“Yeah, baby, Southern 500,” yelled Truex. “Freakin’ awesome. Way to step it up from last week.”

Truex took the lead for the first time on Lap 338 when he passed Ryan Newman on the backstretch and led the final 27 of the last 28 laps for his fifth career Sprint Cup win.

When Truex was asked what it means to win the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500 in the same year, the driver replied, “It means this team is pretty damn good.”

Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano rounded out the top five. 

Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Newman and Keselowski finished sixth through ninth. Tenth-place Chase Elliott was the top finishing rookie.

Harvick had lapped the half the field by Lap 68 and led the first 93 laps. Trevor Bayne triggered the first of 10 cautions after spinning in Turn 4 while attempting to enter pit road on Lap 95. Before the race returned to green, NASCAR black-flagged the No. 48 for unapproved adjustments on pit road. Jimmie Johnson was running 12th before the infraction, but was mired in traffic after serving a drive-thru penalty.

Keselowski held the point on the restart and was leading when Brian Scott ignited the second caution after spinning in Turn 2 on Lap 113. The leaders pitted on the next lap. Keselowski maintained the lead followed by Chase Elliott, Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Truex. 

Harvick regained the lead on Lap 139 and remained there until he pitted on Lap 162. Keselowski moved to the lead for two circuits until Harvick cycled back into the lead. On Lap 193, Harvick led his 10,000th-career lap — joining an elite fraternity of just 17 drivers.

Tony Stewart turned Brian Scott to bring out the third caution — and was summoned to the hauler by NASCAR after the race for his actions before the race returned to green on Lap 211. Harvick held the top spot on the restart with Joey Logano alongside. Kyle Busch passed Logano for second before Johnson spun on the front stretch.

Things start to go sour for Harvick

Harvick appeared to be on his way to his second Southern 500 win — until the team came to pit during the fifth caution on Lap 251. Although the No. 4 car entered the pits first, an issue with an air gun dropped Harvick from the lead to fifth with Hamlin, Elliott, Kyle Busch and Logano ahead.

Greg Biffle hit the wall in Turn 4 to ignite the sixth caution. Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch remained on the track while the rest of the lead lap cars pitted. Hamlin came out third followed by Kyle Busch and Harvick. Once the race restarted, Harvick quickly moved through the lead cars and finally passed Kenseth off of Turn 4 on Lap 273 for the lead.

AJ Allmendinger lost control of his car in Turn 2 on Lap 279 — and collected Ryan Blaney in the process. The leaders pit again, but a broken air gun not only cost Harvick the point, he lost 11 spots prior to the restart. When the race restarted four laps later, Hamlin led the race with Larson, Keselowski, Truex and Elliott in the top five. Larson took the lead two laps later. On Lap 304, Keselowski was forced to pit from ninth with a left rear tire issue. On Lap 317, Stewart, who had experienced overheating of his engine after the incident with Scott, finally lost power and ended up in the garage. He would finish 35th in his final Southern 500. NASCAR called the eighth caution stemming from oil left on the track by the No. 14 car.

Trouble continued for Stewart-Haas Racing after a flat tire caused Paul Menard to loose control of his car and take out Kurt Busch in Turn 2. Once again, the drivers came down pit road. After 45 laps up front, Larson relinquished the lead to Ryan Newman, who elected not to pit.

Truex hangs on

Although the No. 31 was solid in clean air, the Chevy was no match for Truex’s Toyota. Truex passed Newman with 29 laps remaining. With the exception of Harvick passing a timing line and leading Lap 351 during final pit stops on the 10th caution — when Clint Bowyer hooked Aric Almirola — Truex was able to hold off the No. 4 by 0.606-seconds at the finish.

“This is unbelievable,” Truex said. “I’ve always loved this race track. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career, but something always happens, and I’m so proud to get to Victory Lane with this group. The pit crew was flawless tonight—they won us the race.

“They took a lot of heat for what happened last week (a blown pit stop at Michigan resulting in a 20th-place finish). We’ve had a terrible streak of bad luck. We’ve had super-fast race cars…I knew the bad luck would stop coming, and we’d start racking ‘em off…The pit crew’s done a great job, but they did stumble last week, and this was a great way to make it up.”

Harvick frustrated with pit crew

Harvick maintained the point lead by 43 markers, but that was little consolation for a driver hoping to pick up a third win before the Chase. He lost 17 positions on pit road throughout the course of the 367-lap race.

“We have championship cars and we're just mediocre on pit road,” Harvick said. “It's kind of been that way for a few years, and they've moved some things around, but it just seems like it's just week after week after week.

“You have a couple good weeks here and there and every once in a while you just put together a day, but they just can't put together a whole day on pit road right now.”

Harvick led 214 laps, the most of the eight drivers to lead laps.

NASCAR announced after the race that the No. 31 Chevrolet driven by Ryan Newman and No. 42 Chevrolet driven by Larson had failed to clear the Laser Inspection Station of post-race inspection. Any penalties will be announced early this week.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led	Points
1	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	367	3:57'54	28	44
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	367	0.607	214	41
3	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	367	1.668	45	39
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	367	2.555	13	38
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	367	3.270		36
6	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	367	5.397	10	36
7	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	367	5.865		34
8	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	367	6.033	9	34
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	367	6.510	47	33
10	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	367	7.186		31

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