Darlington NASCAR: Truex takes dominant third win over Larson

The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver, the only driver so far this year to win more than once, was only briefly challenged following the final round of green-flag pit stops in the final 20 laps, but when Larson's tyres started to wear out he gradually slipped back.

The win is the 30th of Truex’s career and his second at Darlington, having last won at the 1.366 mile oval in 2016.

“We’ve won a bunch of stages here in the past couple of years, lady luck just had us here,” Truex said.

“We just had good balance, the car would do what I wanted it to do. It was really loose that last run and I was nervous with (Larson) catching us and we got mired in traffic. That’s always tough.”

Truex had won both stages before the all-important final segment, taking the lead for the first time on lap 22 from team-mate Kyle Busch - who was struggling with his tyres and suffered a puncture moments later to bring out the second caution of the race after Aric Almirola's early crash.

Busch made light contact with the wall, but managed to recover to second by the end of the second stage, albeit almost 15s behind Truex, followed by William Byron (Hendrick) and stage one runner-up Denny Hamlin (JGR).

Larson was penalised for speeding on pit road and was forced to start the second stage from the rear of the field, but the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver fought his way back to fifth by the end of the stage.

Larson then took second from Busch on lap 241 and in the final sprint to the flag showed full commitment in his attempts to stay with Truex by going three-wide and splitting the cars of Ryan Newman and Tyler Reddick – a move that could have easily ended in disaster.

But the Las Vegas winner didn't have enough to challenge Truex and had to settle for second, with Busch completing the top three ahead of Byron and Hamlin.

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro HendrickCars.com Throwback

Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images

Kevin Harvick hit the front early on after passing polesitter Brad Keselowski on lap five, but was never able to challenge the leaders thereafter and finished a quiet sixth on a difficult day for Stewart-Haas Racing - having losing Almirola early, his team-mate Cole Custer also crashed out following a tangle with Anthony Alfredo.

Chase Elliott started from the back of the grid after unapproved adjustments before the start, but came through the field to seventh ahead of Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Newman as only nine cars finished on the lead lap.

Results

Cla	Driver	Manufacturer	Gap	Laps Led
1	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota		248
2	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	2.571
3	Kyle Busch	Toyota	6.209	9
4	William Byron	Chevrolet	17.067
5	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	21.939	5
6	Kevin Harvick	Ford	23.951	10
7	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	24.739
8	Ryan Blaney	Ford	26.667
9	Chris Buescher	Ford	27.077	1
10	Ryan Newman	Ford	1 Lap
11	Chase Briscoe	Ford	1 Lap
12	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	1 Lap	2
13	Joey Logano	Ford	1 Lap
14	Christopher Bell	Toyota	1 Lap	3
15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	2 Laps	10
16	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	2 Laps
17	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	2 Laps
18	Erik Jones	Chevrolet	2 Laps
19	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	3 Laps
20	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	3 Laps
21	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	3 Laps
22	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	3 Laps
23	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	3 Laps
24	Brad Keselowski	Ford	3 Laps	4
25	Ryan Preece	Chevrolet	3 Laps
26	Anthony Alfredo	Ford	4 Laps
27	Michael McDowell	Ford	5 Laps
28	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	5 Laps
29	J.J. Yeley	Ford	7 Laps
30	Quin Houff	Chevrolet	7 Laps
31	James Davison	Chevrolet	7 Laps
32	B.J. McLeod	Ford	8 Laps
33	Josh Bilicki	Ford	48 Laps
34	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	105 Laps	1
35	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	187 Laps
36	Cole Custer	Ford	196 Laps
37	Aric Almirola	Ford	288 Laps
View full results