Darlington NASCAR: Truex takes dominant third win over Larson
Martin Truex Jr took his third NASCAR Cup victory of the season in round 12 at Darlington, leading 248 of the 293 laps to head Kyle Larson by 2.571s.
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 | ||||
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