Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Martin Truex Jr. has a knack for coming up big in the biggest of races in 2016.
Truex started the year by coming within inches of winning the Daytona 500 in February, then in May he dominated the field leading 392 of 400 laps to win the Coca Cola 600.
On Sunday night, Truex scored perhaps what may be his biggest victory to date, holding off a charging Kevin Harvick in the closing laps to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500. The win marked Truex’s first win at Darlington and Furniture Row Racing’s second Darlington victory. The first coming with Regan Smith in 2011.
“We’ve had a string of terrible bad luck lately,” Truex said. “We’ve had super-fast race cars. … I knew when the bad luck stopped coming, we would start racking them off. Tonight we weren’t the best car, and we won for once. I just couldn’t be more excited.”
Harvick dominated most of the night leading a race high 214 laps. However three bad pit stops in the closing stages of the race was ultimately too much to overcome as Harvick had to settle for second.
“We started 12th and eighth and sixth and we had a great race car all night just got to thank everybody in the shop and in the garage for putting the race cars under us,” said Harvick, who led a race-high 214 laps. “We can’t just continuously shoot ourselves in the foot every few pit stops.”
It’s not the first time Harvick has been outspoken about his pit crew. But with the Chase looming, it’s taken on an even more critical meaning.
“Oh, it’s just the same old thing,” he said. “You get in position where you bring a dominant car. The guys in the shop and the guys in the garage are doing a great job, and the guys on pit road are doing a terrible job. You get in a position to win races, and they continually step on their toes and don’t make it happen.
Kyle Larson backed up his win at Michigan with a strong third place run followed by: Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top ten.
Other notable finishers include: Kyle Busch 11th, Austin Dillon 12th, Ryan Blaney 13th, Jeff Gordon 14th, Carl Edwards 19th, Jimmie Johnson 33rd, Kurt Busch 34th, and Tony Stewart 35th.
