NASCAR: Dominating a Cup Series race finally pays off
By Asher Fair
Martin Truex Jr. dominated Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway, and unlike many drivers so far in 2021, he actually won.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. secured his 30th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and his third victory of the 2021 season on Sunday at Darlington Raceway in the Goodyear 400 throwback race.
Despite a late charge by Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, Truex was able to pull away late and secure the victory by 2.571 seconds over the driver of the #5 Chevrolet. He is still the only driver to win more than one race through 12 races this season, having also won at Phoenix Raceway in March and Martinsville Speedway last month.
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Truex led a total of 248 laps of this 293-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina behind the wheel of the #19 Toyota, including the final 105, en route to the victory.
In securing the victory, he became the first driver to lead more than 200 laps and actually win the race this year.
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Dominating a race finally paid off. Prior to Sunday, three races this season had seen one driver lead at least 200 laps, and that driver did not win any of those events.
Larson led 269 of the 325 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway and finished in second after being passed late by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. Then Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin led 276 of the 500 laps at Martinsville Speedway and finished in third after being passed late by Truex and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott. Most recently, Hamlin also led 207 of the 400 laps at Richmond Raceway and finished in second after being passed late by Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman.
In fact, Truex’s win is only the third win of the season by a driver who led the most laps. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron led a race-high 102 of the 267 laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway en route to the win, and Larson led a race-high 103 of the 267 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway en route to the win.
Truex has had his own instance of leading the most lap and not converting that into a win, having led a race-high 126 of the 253 laps in the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway and finishing in 19th place after a late flat tire.
Truex became the first driver to ever win a stage at Darlington Raceway and then go on to win the race since stage racing was introduced in 2017. This Sunday’s race at the track was the seventh during that span.
He also became the first driver of the 2021 season to win the first two stages of a race this season as well as the race itself, thus making him the first driver to secure a 60-point day this season.
Teammate Kyle Busch had come closest to doing so up until this point, winning stage one and finishing in second place in stage two before winning at Kansas Speedway to cap off a 59-point effort.
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The 13th race on the 2021 schedule is the Drydene 400, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 16 at Dover International Speedway. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET.