Martin Truex Jr wins the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway

Martin Truex Jr. wins the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, scoring his second win of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and fifth Cup victory in a career. Furniture Row’s #78 Toyota Camry was in the lead for just 28 laps (of 367), after Truex passed Ryan Newman for the top spot on Lap 339 of 367.

Prior to that, Kevin Harvick led a race-high 214 laps but the unexpected air gun problems during the pit stop on Lap 281, cost him a victory and he finished second, 0.606 seconds behind Truex. It was Harvick’s 17th second-place finish in the past 61 races. Kyle Larson came home third, ahead of Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.

The next race, Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, on September 10, would be a last race in the regular season, before the Round 16 of The Chase.