Pit crews make difference for Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Martin Truex Jr. has had a summer of fast cars but sour luck. Sunday night, in one of the season’s biggest races and with the Chase for the Sprint Cup on the horizon, everything clicked for Truex and his Furniture Row Racing team.
Truex led the final 16 laps to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500, NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway race and for most of stock car racing history, one of its most coveted trophies.
Kevin Harvick, who followed Truex to the finish, had a Sunday experience quite the opposite of the winner’s. Harvick clearly had the day’s best car, leading 214 of the 367 laps, but difficulties during pit stops repeatedly clipped his wings, and he wasn’t bashful in criticizing his Stewart-Haas Racing pit crew after the race.
“I’m over being a cheerleader,” Harvick said. “Those guys get paid a lot of money to perform on pit road. Cheerleading hasn’t been working. You have to get after it on pit road and do your job.”
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Harvick has two wins this season and leads the points standings, but sporadic trouble on pit road has cast a shadow on the team’s performance even as the Chase looms only two weeks away.
“We continue to give it away on pit road,” Harvick said. “We had a dominant car – just three bad pit stops on pit road. We have championship cars. We’re just mediocre on pit road. It’s kind of been that way for a few years. … We have a couple of good weeks here and there, but they just can’t put together a whole day on pit road right now.”
After being asked if he might seek a change of pit crews with another SHR team, Harvick left the media center without another comment.
Truex, whose pit crew also has had issues this year, couldn’t say enough about his team Sunday night in the afterglow of an emotional victory.
“They did such an awesome job tonight,” Truex said. “We wouldn’t have won this race without those pit stops. They worked their guts out. I’m so proud of them.”
Martin Truex Jr. wins at Darlington
Truex had the lead as the field took the final green flag with 12 laps to go, with Harvick second and Kyle Larson third. Larson was fast over the closing miles, leading 45 straight laps at one stretch, but the Furniture Row pit crew put Truex out front for the money laps.
Harvick slapped the turn-four wall twice with 20 laps to go as he chased Truex.
Truex became one of a handful of drivers who have won the Southern 500 and Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Coca-Cola 600 in the same season. And he finished second – by .01 of a second – to Denny Hamlin in the season-opening Daytona 500.
“We still have 11 races left – Richmond and then into Chicago (for the start of the Chase),” crew chief Cole Pearn said. “There’s a lot of work and a long way to go. We’ve prepped all this year to get to Homestead and go for the championship, but to win two crown jewel races like this in one season is something you won’t forget regardless of what happens.”
Pearn said he understands the frustration that enveloped Harvick’s team Sunday.
“I feel bad for them,” he said. “It’s not easy. It’s a team sport, like it or not. It was a perfect night for our guys to get in the rhythm. I credit a lot of the night to them."
NOTE: The Chevrolets of Kyle Larson and Ryan Newman failed post-race inspection. Penalties for the two teams could be coming later this week. Newman can ill afford any points loss, as he sits just outside Chase for the Sprint Cup qualification. The final four slots are currently held by Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray and Chris Buescher, assuming he remains in the top 30. The 16-driver field will be set after Saturday night's race at Richmond International Raceway.
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