Truex a 2021 3-timer
Martin Truex Jr. remains the only driver to win multiple NASCAR Cup Series races this season, adding another on Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Truex was untouchable all afternoon, whooping the Goodyear 400 field by claiming both stages and leading 248 of the 293 laps. The closest the competition came to Truex and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team was after the final round of green-flag pit stops when Kyle Larson chased him down and stalked him over the last 35 laps. However, Truex managed his final run perfectly and pulled back away by over 2 seconds at the checkered flag.
On his way to his third victory of the season, Truex became the first driver to win a stage at Darlington and the race.
“I’m glad I could do that,” Truex said. “We’ve won a bunch of stages here in the past couple of years, and just always Lady Luck got us. Track position or one thing or another. Just really proud of everybody on this Auto-Owners Camry.”
The win is Truex’s second at Darlington and 30th overall in the Cup Series.
“We just had a good balance; the car would do what I wanted it to do,” said Truex. “I just had to manage those long runs. It was really loose that last run and I was nervous with the 5 (Larson) catching us, and we got mired in some traffic there, and that’s always tough.”
Larson finished second for the second straight time. He did not compete at Darlington last year but was the runnerup at the track in 2019.
Kyle Busch finished third, William Byron fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.
Lewis Hamilton says he learned more about Max Verstappen on Sunday in the Spanish Grand Prix than he has at any other Formula 1 race so far.
Verstappen took the lead with a strong move into Turn 1 at the start of the race, with the Mercedes driver closely following the Red Bull throughout the first 40 laps. Mercedes then opted for a second stop for medium tires — an option Red Bull didn’t have — and Hamilton tracked down Verstappen and took the lead with six laps remaining to secure his 98th victory.
“I’m continuing to love this battle we’re having,” Hamilton said. “I didn’t know whether we’d be able to follow them as close as I did in the end but obviously Turn 1 at the start was not ideal. Gonna have to review it and see how we can do better in the future. But as soon as we got passed in Turn 1, I was like OK, switched into a different mode and it was a really good day.
“I learned a lot about Max today, perhaps more than all the other races probably put together, so this has been a good one in that sense. Great, great teamwork from all of us – we were here until late most evenings discussing strategy, last night and this morning; we had all the bases covered in that respect. It then meant coming back from 20-odd seconds was not easy, but I think it was the right one in the end.”
Hamilton says it was less about the wheel-to-wheel combat that he learned, but more about Verstappen’s driving style and approach after following him so closely for so long.
– Chris Medland, RACER