Martin Truex Jr. wins Southern 500 after Kevin Harvick mistake

Rea White

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Martin Truex Jr. wins Southern 500 after Kevin Harvick mistake image

Martin Truex Jr. won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday night, his second win in a prestigious event this season. 

Truex Jr. had the lead with 10 laps to go. Kevin Harvick, who had led the most laps in the race, rode second. Kyle Larson, days after his first Sprint Cup win, was third and challenging. They finished in that order, with Truex following up on his Coca-Cola 600 win with the Darlington victory.

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“This is unbelievable," Truex said on NBC. "I’ve always loved this racetrack. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career. ... Just couldn't be more excited to win at Darlington. Southern 500. Been wanting to win this thing for a long time."

Harvick dealt with highs and lows throughout the Sunday night race. He led the most laps and could easily pull away from the field once he got to the front. But then he lost position on multiple pit stops. He rallied back each time. Harvick was seventh on a restart with 35 laps to go. He was second with 24 to go. He hit the wall coming off Turn 4, but kept on going in second. Then the caution came out for Aric Almirola, who hit the wall after he was tagged by Clint Bowyer with 18 laps to go. 

‘Oh, it’s just the same old thing,"  Harvick said of his pit stops. "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. You’re not going to win races like that. I’m really proud of the car that we brought tonight and the things that we’ve done on the race track, but you can only make so many excuses for pit road.”

The opening caution period jumbled the field as it came in the midst of green-flag pit stops after Trevor Bayne spun trying to hit pit road. That forced multiple drivers to take the wave-around in order to return to the tail end of the lead lap. Brad Keselowski was the leader on the restart on Lap 104. 

Harvick, who led every lap before the caution, was fifth on the restart. Several drivers that had been in contention found themselves a lap down. 

Austin Dillon got the free pass and back onto the lead lap on the race’s second caution after Brian Scott spun. It was a positive move for Richard Childress Racing’s drivers, two of whom had encountered problems early. 

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Keselowski and Chase Elliott, who lamented his restart skills after Michigan, led the field back to green on that restart. Harvick quickly moved back to second, but did not retake the lead until Lap 140. At that point, Keselowski was trying to lap Casey Mears when he slid up the track and Harvick moved inside of him and back into the lead. 

The caution was called again when Tony Stewart, making his final start at Darlington, slammed into the side of Scott , who spun. Stewart and Scott had just made contact as Stewart was trying to pass the rookie, who was already several laps off the pace. Stewart and his crew chief were called for a NASCAR meeting after the race. 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.  

Shortly after the restart, Jimmie Johnson spun. He had already lost ground when his team was ruled to have made an unapproved adjustment on pit road when a crew member banged into the side of his car. He was forced back to pit road to make changes there, then had to serve a pass-through penalty when the race went green then. And then he spun. 

Paul Menard had a tire failure and hit Kurt Busch, who spun and hit the wall, destroying his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet and bringing out the caution with 40 laps to go. 

In the battle for Chase positions, Dillon was caught speeding on pit road early, while Ryan Newman started from the rear after an unapproved adjustment. He was moving through the field before he lost a lap in the pit-stop sequence. 

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Greg Biffle, chasing a win in order to make the Chase, watched his hopes take yet another hit when he crashed to cause a caution. His Roush Fenway Racing teammate Trevor Bayne, who entered the race in 17th in the standings, finished 40th after suffering a mechanical failure. 

AJ Allmendinger spun in the last 100 laps after making contact with Ryan Blaney; both drivers have been on the outer edge of the Chase battle. Blaney had moved back into the free-pass position when he had to serve a pit-road penalty for having too many men over the wall. 

 

Rea White