May 9, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Martin Truex Jr. builds momentum with second Darlington win

DARLINGTON, S.C.— Martin Truex Jr. didn’t need insurance at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.

He had the field of the Goodyear 400 covered.

For the second time with the Auto-Owner’s Insurance livery on his hood, Truex tamed the Lady in Black.

“I thought at times it could have been better, but obviously, it was better than everybody else’s and that’s the key with this low downforce,” Truex said of his car. “Even this thing was a handful at the end of those long runs. You just have no tires left and you are sliding all over the place and you can’t get ahold of it. You are just trying to manage your stuff.

“It was definitely a hot rod. It looked like all of our cars were pretty good too. Good day for the company. I’m really happy to win on Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there--especially mine.”

Truex swept both stages and led 248 of 293 laps—including the last 105 circuits as he extended his lead over Kyle Larson by 2.571-seconds at the checkers. By running the wall, he lapped all but nine cars en route to his third win of the 2021 season and 30th Cup win overall.

“If you pull off the wall, you are four-tenths slower, and your tires get burnt off,” Truex said. “I ran where I had to run. That’s the reason I was fast – because of where I was running. That risk is what you have to do to be fast on a long run. It worked today, and hopefully, we will be able to come back here in the fall and do it again.

“I’m just really excited to be able to win here again. This is an awesome place; throwback weekend is really special. This is a good one. This is a big one. Even though this isn’t the Southern 500, it is pretty damn cool to win at Darlington, no matter when it is.”

Kyle Busch finished third followed by William Byron, who scored his 10th-consecutive top 10 finish of the season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher rounded out the top nine. Ryan Newman was the first car one lap down.

Larson narrowed Truex’s advantage to .170-seconds with 27 laps to go. But in the closing laps,  No. 5 Hendrick Chevy became too loose for Larson to handle.

"I got to his back bumper in 1 and 2 and I could see he was struggling in front of me," Larson said. "I thought, well, if I am just patient here and stay behind him and put some pressure on him, maybe he'll use his stuff up or get into the wall in 3 and 4 because he was running so close to it. So I was just hoping that he would make a mistake.

"Looking back if there was something I could do different I would have taken advantage of that opportunity and tried to get to his inside and maybe tried to clear him off of two and maybe block him in my dirty air the rest of the race."

The first stage was interrupted twice—first, after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., tagged Aric Almirola’s Ford and sent him careening into the inside backstretch wall.

“I got wrecked,” Almirola said. “Pretty simple. We were really fast. We had to start last and we were passing a bunch of cars. We were three-quarters of a second faster than the next 10 to 15 cars in front of us. We were passing about one a lap and I got to the 47 and passed him in the middle of 1 and 2 and then at the exit of 2 I had to check up just a little bit because I got tight and he ran right into the back of me and wrecked me.”

Harvick held the lead but the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Kyle Busch and Truex were coming. Busch took the lead on Lap 14 with Truex in tow. Eight laps later, Truex launched into the lead coming through Turn 4 as Busch’s tire gave way and he grazed the wall to trigger the second caution.

NASCAR repurposed the yellow as the competition caution and the leaders used the opportunity to pit. Truex held serve through the Stage 1 win. He continued at the point when the race returned to green on Lap 98. But two laps later, Anthony Alfredo became loose after contact with Quinn Houff and took out Cole Custer on the backstretch.

“They all checked up in front of me and just turned down into me,” Custer said. “I didn’t have anywhere to go. It is really frustrating…We were really looking forward to this race but it didn’t go in our favor. It is so slick out there. It is pretty crazy. Really slick. That is the slickest I have ever seen Darlington. We were just struggling. We couldn’t really find the balance on the car.”

After a lengthy clean-up, the field went green on Lap 104. Four laps later, the fifth of sixth cautions erupted after Bubba Wallace punted Kurt Busch on the front stretch. Busch slammed into the retaining wall, limped to pit road then caught fire. He finished 35th.

“I was racing hard and there’s no give and take,” said Busch, who finished 35th. “Guy’s running for the Lucky Dog; you can’t fault him for that. But you still have to race the track and then give the room to the lead lap guys.

“But man, just got ran into, got taken out and we’re on this end of it. It’s been too many times. It’s been a rough year and this just adds to it.”

With a green-flag run, Truex checked out. By the end of the second stage the driver of the No. 19 Toyota had a 14.5-second lead over Kyle Busch. Truex’s dominance continued over the final stage but Larson, who had recovered from 16th after a speeding penalty at the end of Stage 1, mounted a charge. Larson was up to fifth when final green-flag pit stops started on Lap 224. By Lap 235, he was up to third. Larson passed Kyle Busch five laps later and set his sights on Truex but had to settle for second. 

"We definitely needed to get a good finish," Larson said. "I thought we were going to get one last week and I messed that up. Three bad weeks in a row, and to come back and contend for a win and finish second and get good stage points after speeding at the end of the first stage, too, yeah, it was a good day.

"Now we go to Dover, which is one of if not my best tracks. Excited about that, and Hendrick Motorsports has been pretty good at Dover from what I remember, too, so looking forward to getting there."

Truex was encouraged by his car's performance with the low downforce package which will be in heavy rotation during the Playoff run--including the season finale at Phoenix Raceway where Truex won in March.

"Phoenix was a really, really big confidence booster for us--to go there and win," Truex said. "I feel like we’ve carried it since there. We just have to keep this thing going. Guys are doing a really good job, all around. It’s so fun to drive race cars like that. I’m just so thankful for all of those guys that work so hard--men and women back JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) for the job they do. Toyota, TRD for giving us all the help they do with the engines and everything else. It takes a lot of people to make these cars go fast, and I’m really lucky to be able to sit behind the wheel of this one today.

“What an awesome team we have. Hopefully, we can keep this rolling.”