In a season that’s been mired over with parity and different winners, Martin Truex Jr. has been the one, beaming example of a team with consistency across the chaos.
The No. 19 crew found itself celebrating in victory lane for the third time this season.
It’s saying a lot for Truex Jr. to go back when he’s the only driver with multiple wins so far this year and we’re a race away from being halfway through the regular season. Not to mention, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and defending champion Chase Elliott have yet to find a win in 2021.
For Truex Jr. to go out and dominate – winning one stage by 14 seconds – and complete the run by finishing the win shows a lot for a team that was getting its feet back under them for a large portion of 2020.
“We just had good balance,” Truex Jr. said on FS1. “The car would do what I wanted it to do. I just had to manage those long runs. I got really nervous with the 5 coming there.”
Truex Jr. was staring the win in the face with a four-second lead going into green flag pit stops on the final cycle on Sunday at Darlington.
His crew made sure to call him down to pit lane the lap after Larson – who was the only competitor that had any pressure for him – pitted from second place, to prevent losing any more time to his competitors in the field.
The No. 19 team lost time on the No. 5 crew, which left the door open for Larson, but it just wasn’t enough by the end of the race.
“I was surprised that I was able to get to him, “Larson said on FS1. “I closed (on him) on pit road and then I caught him pretty quickly once we got him on track. I had the opportunity to get by him in (turns) one and two, but I thought I’d stay patient and maybe get him to use his stuff up.”
Larson got to the bumper of Truex Jr., but the veteran driver and former champion did exactly what he needed to to capture his 30th career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Kyle Busch overcame a flat tire that brought out a caution earlier in the race to round out the podium over William Byron – who has one win this season and is on a streak of 10 top 10 finishes in a row.
Hamlin, Harvick, and Elliott, ironically finished next to each other behind Byron while the pair of Roush Fenway cars collected impressive top 10 finishes as well.
As last year’s Xfinity winner at Darlington Chase Briscoe took home one of his best finishes of the year right outside in 11th.
Although the field behind that was mostly lapped cars. Truex’s ride was dominant and the yellow flags came close to each other, so it allowed for a spacious leader to eat up a lot of lead lap cars, much like the surface at Darlington goes after tires.
And that’s what Truex Jr. did, reflecting on his days as a champion during the years he dominated the series with a matte black throwback paint scheme.
He took that win vintage MTJ style.
“This one’s for Furniture Row.”
NASCAR Darlington Results
1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Kyle Larson
3. Kyle Busch
4. William Byron
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Chase Elliott
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Chris Buescher
10. Ryan Newman
11. Chase Briscoe
12. Tyler Reddick
13. Joey Logano
14. Christopher Bell
15. Ross Chastain
16. Austin Dillon
17. Alex Bowman
18. Erik Jones
19. Matt DiBendetto
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
21. Bubba Wallace
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Brad Keselowski
25. Ryan Preece
26. Anthony Alfredo
27. Michael McDowell
28. Justin Haley
29. JJ Yeley
30. Quin Houff
31. James Davison
32. BJ McLeod
33. Josh Bilicki
34. Cody Ware
35. Kurt Busch
36. Cole Custer
37. Aric Almirola
| 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | ||||||
| After 12 of 26 Regular Season Races – Next Race Sunday @ Dover | ||||||
| Position | Driver | Wins | Points | Cutoff | PP | |
| 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | 3 | x | x | 18 | |
| 2 | William Byron | 1 | 428 | x | 6 | |
| 3 | Joey Logano | 1 | 406 | x | 7 | |
| 4 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | 405 | x | 8 | |
| 5 | Kyle Larson | 1 | 385 | x | 9 | |
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | 1 | 379 | x | 6 | |
| 7 | Kyle Busch | 1 | 373 | x | 6 | |
| 8 | Christopher Bell | 1 | 320 | x | 5 | |
| 9 | Alex Bowman | 1 | 281 | x | 5 | |
| 10 | Michael McDowell | 1 | 278 | x | 5 | |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | 529 | +261 | 5 | ||
| 12 | Kevin Harvick | 385 | +117 | 0 | ||
| 13 | Chase Elliott | 382 | +114 | 1 | ||
| 14 | Austin Dillon | 316 | +48 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Chris Buescher | 287 | +19 | 1 | ||
| 16 | Matt DiBenedetto | 268 | +0 | 1 | ||
| Playoff Cutoff | ||||||
| 17 | Tyler Reddick | 268 | -0 | 0 | ||
| 18 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 249 | -19 | 0 | ||
| 19 | Ryan Newman | 246 | -22 | 0 | ||
| 20 | Kurt Busch | 240 | -28 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Bubba Wallace | 223 | -45 | 1 | ||
| 22 | Ross Chastain | 218 | -50 | 0 | ||
| 23 | Daniel Suarez | 214 | -54 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Ryan Preece ® | 209 | -59 | 0 | ||
| 25 | Chase Briscoe ® | 198 | -70 | 0 | ||
| 26 | Cole Custer | 192 | -76 | 0 | ||
| 27 | Erik Jones | 188 | -80 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Aric Almirola | 168 | -75 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Anthony Alfredo ® | 125 | -143 | 0 | ||
| 30 | Corey LaJoie | 116 | -115 | 0 | ||
2021 NASCAR Cup Series Winners
Daytona | Michael McDowell
Daytona Road Course | Christopher Bell
Homestead | William Byron
Las Vegas | Kyle Larson
Phoenix | Martin Truex Jr.
Atlanta | Ryan Blaney
Bristol Dirt | Joey Logano
Martinsville | Martin Truex Jr. (2)
Richmond | Alex Bowman
Talladega | Brad Keselowski
Kansas | Kyle Busch
Darlington | Martin Truex Jr. (3)
