Berlin Raceway wins $50,000 ‘Advance My Track Challenge’ presented by Advance Auto Parts

Posted on May 12, 2021May 12, 2021 by Press Release

RALEIGH, N.C. (May 12, 2021) – The race fans have spoken. Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan, will receive $50,000 as winner of the “Advance My Track Challenge,” a community-based program led by Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP), a leading automotive aftermarket parts retailer and entitlement sponsor of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series (NAAPWS).

Berlin Raceway accrued the most race fan votes out of six NASCAR-sanctioned short tracks that were part of the final round of voting, held on May 9-10. The .4375-mile paved oval track outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, hosts NAAPWS racing and other racing series from April through September each year.

“We are thrilled to award the grand prize to the DeWitt family and their fantastic team at Berlin Raceway,” said Jason McDonell, Advance’s executive vice president of merchandising, marketing and E-commerce. “It’s been incredible seeing the passion from the track team and their fans as they rallied to support their local track throughout the program. The ‘Advance My Track Challenge’ had a great first year, and our message to race fans is, we’re just getting started. This program plans to return next year, as our team at Advance continues to support grassroots racing across NASCAR’s home tracks.”

Along with the $50,000 grand prize, Berlin Raceway will host an Advance Auto Parts-themed night for fans during an upcoming weekend of racing. Advance also awarded $15,000 to the track finishing with the second-most votes, New Hampshire’s Hudson Speedway. The third-place track, Alaska Raceway Park in Palmer, Alaska, received a $10,000 prize.

The “Advance My Track Challenge” began on March 24, with 22 NASCAR home tracks across the United States and Canada represented in the program’s first round of voting. Fans voted up to three times daily in the first round, which concluded April 27. The six tracks receiving the most fan votes were part of the final round of voting, which took place May 9-10.

As part of its NASCAR Cup Series sponsorship with Team Penske, Advance partnered with the organization and driver Ryan Blaney to promote the “Advance My Track Challenge.” Blaney, who began his career racing on short tracks across the Southeastern United States, raced his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang with “Advance My Track Challenge” branding at the March 29 dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway and the May 9 race at Darlington Raceway.

“It’s been awesome partnering with the Advance team in their support of NASCAR’s home tracks,” said Blaney, a five-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner. “Local race tracks are incredibly important to the communities they’re in and provide a positive economic impact. They’re entertaining fans and giving race car drivers the chance to live their dream. I’ve enjoyed being part of this program and putting the spotlight on all of these home tracks. Congratulations to Berlin Raceway and their team on the grand prize. I look forward to following the great things happening at their track for years to come.”

Learn more about the local drivers, teams and NASCAR home tracks that make up the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series by visiting the series page on NASCAR.com.

Posted on May 12, 2021May 12, 2021 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on May 12, 2021May 14, 2021 by Staff Report

Martin Truex Jr. has claimed the Busch Pole Award for Sunday’s Drydene 400 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover International Speedway.

Truex, who won last weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway, will start his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from the pole position. Through 12 races, Truex is still the NASCAR Cup Series’ only multi-race winner in 2021. He’s at three victories.

Daniel Hemric’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is on the pole for Saturday’s Drydene 200 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

As NASCAR adapted to COVID-19 protocols last season, practice and qualifying were eliminated at a majority of national-series events to limit at-track time, exposure and to cut race weekend costs. To determine starting lineups, competition officials used grouped draws, added inversions for weekend doubleheaders, and eventually adopted a performance-metrics formula. That metrics format remains in place this season, drawing on performance from both individual races and season-long results.

NASCAR’s metrics formula for 2021 weighs:

- 25 percent: Driver’s finishing position from the previous race
- 25 percent: Car owner’s finishing position from the previous race
- 35 percent: Team owner points ranking
- 15 percent: Fastest lap from the previous race

See the full lineup for Sunday’s Cup Series race below.

Start pos.	Driver	Car #	Team
1	Martin Truex Jr.	19	Joe Gibbs Racing
2	Denny Hamlin	11	Joe Gibbs Racing
3	William Byron	24	Hendrick Motorsports
4	Kyle Larson	5	Hendrick Motorsports
5	Kevin Harvick	4	Stewart-Haas Racing
6	Kyle Busch	18	Joe Gibbs Racing
7	Ryan Blaney	12	Team Penske
8	Chase Elliott	9	Hendrick Motorsports
9	Joey Logano	22	Team Penske
10	Chris Buescher	17	Roush Fenway Racing
11	Christopher Bell	20	Joe Gibbs Racing
12	Tyler Reddick	8	Richard Childress Racing
13	Ryan Newman	6	Roush Fenway Racing
14	Austin Dillon	3	Richard Childress Racing
15	Brad Keselowski	2	Team Penske
16	Alex Bowman	48	Hendrick Motorsports
17	Chase Briscoe	14	Stewart-Haas Racing
18	Matt DiBenedetto	21	Wood Brothers Racing
19	Ross Chastain	42	Chip Ganassi Racing
20	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	47	JTG Daugherty Racing
21	Michael McDowell	34	Front Row Motorsports
22	Bubba Wallace	23	23XI Racing
23	Erik Jones	43	Richard Petty Motorsports
24	Daniel Suarez	99	Trackhouse Racing Team
25	Ryan Preece	37	JTG Daugherty Racing
26	Corey LaJoie	7	Spire Motorsports
27	Anthony Alfredo	38	Front Row Motorsports
28	Kurt Busch	1	Chip Ganassi Racing
29	Josh Berry*	77	Spire Motorsports
30	Cole Custer	41	Stewart-Haas Racing
31	BJ McLeod	78	Live Fast Motorsports
32	Aric Almirola	10	Stewart-Haas Racing
33	James Davison	15	Rick Ware Racing
34	Cody Ware	51	Petty Ware Racing
35	Quin Houff	00	StarCom Racing
36	Garrett Smithley	53	Rick Ware Racing
37	Josh Bilicki	52	Rick Ware Racing

*Justin Haley was initially slated to compete in the No. 77 entry but will miss the race due to COVID-19 protocols.

Practice and qualifying are tentatively scheduled for eight Cup Series races this year. Busch Pole Qualifying was held for the season-opening Daytona 500, and rain canceled the qualifying races for Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt-track race. The next Cup Series event with qualifying scheduled is the May 23 debut at the Circuit of The Americas road course in Austin, Texas.

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Cara Cooper

Mason Mitchell may have quit full-time racing a decade ago, but the itch never left. He’s just, instead, found new ways to share his love of racing in Texas.

Mitchell is the race director at Houston Motorsports Park, a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.375-mile banked asphalt oval track in Houston, Texas. It’s the same track where he used to race in the early 2010s.

He stopped racing himself in 2011, when work, family, and life got too busy. But even though Mitchell wasn’t behind the wheel, he remained involved with uncles and cousins who were still racing. His family was also working to re-open HMP and Mobile International Speedway in Alabama.

Mitchell’s mom started the Gulf Coast Racing Series in Houston and Mobile, and he helped for a couple years before being asked to take on the role of race director at both tracks.

Now he has his hands on every little thing at the track on race days – from cleaning the track, concessions, and bathrooms, to calling the races, talking to drivers in the driver’s meeting to explain the rules, timing, and setting up wireless radios and cameras for livestreams of races.

“I know pretty much everything that goes into it and I just have my hand in every jar, I guess you could say,” Mitchell said. “It’s really just a jack of all trades.”

Mitchell was a fourth generation driver. His great-grandfather started as a factory driver for Indian Motorcycles in Daytona, Florida in the ’40s. Both of his grandfathers also raced, at one time even against each other.

It was watching his uncles race when he was younger that got Mitchell interested in trying it himself. He would go to the track and help on their cars, and he finally got the opportunity to try racing on dirt in a limited modified.

“I took to it. I wasn’t really good on dirt, and then I had a chance to race on asphalt and I just went from there,” he said. “It just seemed like it came natural to me. As many races as I watched growing up, watching the line and watching everybody’s runs. It’s one of those things where I just grew up around it and knew I wanted to do it.”

At the time he quit racing, Mitchell said he was travelling a lot for work, often out of the country, and he didn’t want to commit to the sport if he couldn’t give it his full attention.

“It’s just really hard to be competitive in racing if you’re not giving 100 percent to it,” he said. “And I’m not the kind of guy who’s just, I like doing it but at the same time I know I can be competitive. And if I’m going to race I’m going to be competitive and try to win. It’s just one of those things.”

The itch to get back into the car never left Mitchell, even after he quit racing full-time. He’s run a couple pro truck events for his father-in-law over the last couple years, and he never turns down a chance to get behind the wheel.

“Any day of the week if somebody asks me to come out and hot lap their car I’m 100 percent willing,” he said. “Any chance I can get back in the car I’m back in the car. Even making some hot laps or helping the drivers out at the track and giving my knowledge of what I’ve known in the past to young drivers or drivers in general… I always have the itch.”

Mitchell’s hope is that drivers at HMP and in Mobile can tell he sees racing from the perspective of a driver.

“At the end of the night I try to make it a point to go talk to a lot of the drivers and get their perspectives and see what we can do better and what we can build on,” he said. “That’s something I’m always looking at. Same with the fans. In order to keep fans in the stands you’ve got to have drivers that want to come out and race and you’ve got to have a field.

“I’m not the kind of director that’s all about business, making money here, making money there. I’m for the racer. Having a racing background and a family in racing, it’s easier, I think, for me to talk to the drivers and the drivers knowing I did that in the past and the respect we have for each other. I think that makes it work out as well as it does is just having all that knowledge about racing in general from the get-go.”

Every now and then Mitchell will go race again, but for now he said he’s really focusing on his directing job and “getting fans in the stands and just keeping racing alive in Houston and in Texas.”

For him, racing is about more than just being behind the wheel. It’s sharing the love of the sport with friends made at the track, and “just seeing an old school track and the history from way back when and just trying to bring it back to life,” he said.

“Racing has kind of died off in Texas for the most part as far as short tracks on asphalt,” he said. “We have a lot of dirt tracks but asphalt racing has really died off and it got the point there where we really didn’t have anything and it was up to us to either do it and make a series and keep racing going or it was just going to be one of those things where it was dead. So I definitely didn’t want to see that happen.

“It’s just the friendships and the rivalries. Everything that goes along with it. It’s in my blood. I like doing it. I feel comfortable doing it. Even when I’m stressed out and have 50 things going on at the racetrack in the same day, I’m in my inner circle, I guess you could say.”

Posted on May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 by Staff Report

NASCAR competition officials handed out a one-race suspension Tuesday to Paul Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford in the Cup Series, for a lug-nut violation during last weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway.

The No. 22 group was one of five teams — two in the Cup Series and three in Xfinity Series — that were docked for unsecured lug nuts in a post-race check, in accordance with Section 10.9.10.4 of the NASCAR Rule Book. Wolfe was also fined $20,000 after two lug nuts were found not safely secured on Joey Logano’s entry after Sunday’s Goodyear 400.

STANDINGS: Cup Series | Xfinity Series

NASCAR officials also issued a $10,000 fine to crew chief Luke Lambert for one unsecured lug nut on the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driven by Chris Buescher at Darlington.

In the Xfinity Series, three crew chiefs were each fined $5,000 after their cars with hit with single-lug penalties after Saturday’s Steakhouse Elite 200. Those teams were:

• No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and crew chief Bruce Schlicker (driver Jeb Burton)
• No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and crew chief Jason Trinchere (driver AJ Allmendinger)
• No. 44 Martins Motorsports Chevrolet and crew chief Buddy Sisco (driver Tommy Joe Martins)

Posted on May 11, 2021May 12, 2021 by Staff Report

The 2021 NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola campaign is more than just a military appreciation platform — it’s a campaign that salutes heroes next door. Each week, NASCAR.com will highlight multiple individuals in the week’s race markets who have made a difference with their service both in the military and to their communities.

In the latest profile of a next-door hero, NASCAR.com is highlighting U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Daniel “Dan” White.

MSG White has served in the U.S. Air Force for 18 years. He has spent his service maintaining cable and antenna systems, providing key information technology to the U.S. Department of Defense. Born in the Philippines, White comes from a Navy family.

Currently, White is stationed at Dover Air Force Base with wife Sara and sons Douglas and Benjamin. Since moving to the area two years ago, he has dedicated more than 372 hours as a local Cub Scout leader. He has provided leadership training and moral value development to local youth through lessons involving conservation, basic navigation and team-building exercises. One such activity involved an immersion with the city of Magnolia’s Fire House, where scouts learned about fire safety and what it entails to become a firefighter. His pack is making every effort to meet in person, while following safety protocols to hold meetings in a safe manner.

“This past year has been a challenge with COVID-19 restrictions, but we’re resilient and found a way to move forward,” White said.

White’s sense of community extends beyond the Cub Scouts and into his own neighborhood, where he is a founding member of his neighborhood watch. There, he serves as an advocate for law enforcement and first responders, while hoping to inspire others to take an active role in their communities.

Posted on May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 by Staff Report

Riverhead Raceway had been a regular stop for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since the tour’s inception in 1985.

Sixty-four races over 35 seasons, with fabled Modified stars like Mike Stefanik, Richie Evans and Reggie Ruggiero trading wins with home track heroes such as Mike Ewanitsko, Steve Park and Wayne Anderson. The tour-typed Modifieds have long been a mainstay of the track’s NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series program, and the quarter-mile bullring seems to be uniquely suited to bringing out the best of the Modifieds.

The COVID-19 pandemic kept the tour away last year, but it will return in a big way in 2021, starting with Saturday night’s Miller Lite 200 (8 p.m. ET, TrackPass).

It will be one of three trips to Long Island for the tour.

RELATED LINKS:

RACE INFO: Miller Lite 200 At Riverhead Speedway

Fans can attend the race as well as watch the race live on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.

Miller Lite 200

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

It’s been 26 years since a weekly series regular has knocked off a visitor from the touring series. But Victory Lane at Riverhead has been the exclusive domain of a Long Islander since 2013.

In fast, since 2003, only four drivers outside of New York have won at the track in 25 races there.

That bodes well for the driver leading the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in points after two events: Eric Goodale.

Goodale’s first career tour win came at his home track in 2014. He has four top fives and 12 top 10s in 17 starts there, but has finished outside the top 10 in three of his last four races.

Nobody has been better at Riverhead than Justin Bonsignore.

The two-time tour champion has eight wins in 18 starts, including the last four trips between 2018-19.

They haven’t been easy. In July of 2019, he held off track regular John Beatty Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish that had Bonsignore taking the checkered flag sideways across the finish line. When the tour returned two months later, it was another green-white-checkered with Bonsignore edging Timmy Solomito.

Solomito has three wins and 10 top fives in 13 races at the track he grew up racing at.

The last driver NOT from Long Island to win there? Ryan Preece.

And the NASCAR Cup Series driver, who has four wins at Riverhead including three straight between 2012-13, will be back in the No. 6 for his third tour start of the season. Preece also won the Islip 300 last November, to become the first back-to-back winner of that non-tour event.

Craig Lutz was second to Preece in that race and third in the tour’s last race at Riverhead in 2019, while Stafford winner Patrick Emerling scored his first top five at the track in the last visit. Six-time tour champion Doug Coby has won the Mayhew Tools Pole Award in two of the last three Riverhead races, but has just seven top fives in 19 starts.

Among Riverhead’s weekly series competitors looking to end the tour drought is five-time track champion Tom Rogers Jr. Rogers has 60 wins at Riverhead, second all-time, and has nine top 10s in his last 10 tour starts at Riverhead – including a fourth in 2016. He also led 113 laps before finishing ninth in the September race in 2019.

Two-time Riverhead modified champion Kyle Soper will pilot Anderson’s car.

RACING REFERENCE:

RACE FACTS

RACE	Miller Lite 200
PLACE	Riverhead Raceway in Riverhead, N.Y.
DATE	Saturday, May 15, 2021
TIME	8 p.m. ET
TV/LIVE STREAM	TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold (live) / NBCSN – (Friday, May 21, 5 p.m. ET)
TRACK LAYOUT	Quarter-mile paved oval
LAPS	200
MILES	50
EVENT SCHEDULE	Saturday, May 15 — Garage opens: 12:45 p.m. ET; Practice: 3-4 p.m.; Qualifying: 6 p.m.; Miler Lite 200: 8 p.m.
TWITTER	@NASCARRoots, @RiverheadRacewy, @_TrackPass

RELATED:

Miller Lite 200 Entry List

CREW CHIEF HANDOUT: The starting field for the Miller Lite 200 is limited to limited to 28 starters including provisionals. The field will be set by qualifying (1-22) and provisional process per the entry blank (23-28) for the Miller Lite 200. In the event that qualifying as stated on the entry blank does not take place for any unforeseen circumstance, the field will be set in accordance with the 2021 NASCAR Touring Series Rule Book.

QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time.

The maximum tire allotment available for this event is as follows: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event.

The tire change rule is zero (0) tires, any position.

QUALIFYING AND SPECIAL AWARDS

$400 Phil Kurze Halfway Leader Award presented by Josten’s per event award to the race leader at the halfway point of the event, regardless if the race is running under green or yellow.

$600 Hoosier Tire “Lap Leader” per event award to the eligible car owner whose driver leads the most laps in each event. In the event of a tie, the award will go to the highest finishing car in the event.

$500 Hoosier Tire “Hard Charger” per event award to the highest finishing eligible driver who advances the most positions during the course of the race. In the case of a tie, the highest finishing driver will receive the award.

$500 Hoosier Tire “Most Improved” per event award to the eligible new team/organization whose driver improves the most positions during the course of the race. In the event of a tie, the award will go to the highest finishing car in the event. If money is not awarded during this event, funds will rollover to the next event and will continue to rollover until an eligible new team/organization claims the money.

$1,000 Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole per event award to the driver with the fastest qualifying time eligible to participate under the Manufacturers’ Prize Money Conditions.

$550 Sunoco Spec Fuel award divided: 1st-$300 5th-$150 10th-$100.

$3,500 Whelen Engineering “Winner of the Race” award to the winning driver.

Whelen Non-Starter award will be paid to the first 15 competitors throughout the season who pass inspection, practice, attempt to qualify, but fail to make the feature event.

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — To borrow a phrase overheard in the newly reopened media center during NASCAR’s throwback weekend, the expansion of garage access to selected guests at Darlington Raceway had a “first day of school” feel.

Race teams welcomed back sponsors and corporate guests, and team officials and media roamed the garage in limited numbers during the tripleheader weekend. The historic speedway that served as the epicenter for NASCAR’s schedule resuming in 2020 was host for the next evolutionary step in the sport’s COVID-19 protocol procedures.

“I think it’s a big deal any time we can get more fan and media and sponsor interaction for our sport,” said Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 team and driver Kyle Larson. “We know the fans are the lifeblood of our sport and everyone with the media and reporters are what presents it to the world and keeps the fans engaged. So to have you guys here and the fans in the stands and have sponsors and media members in the infield, I thought was really cool.

“I think it’s a big positive for us. I know that NASCAR is going about doing it the right way and definitely trust in what they’re doing, so it’s good to see.”

NASCAR announced April 20 that the garage footprint of essential personnel would grow for fully vaccinated guests, starting with Darlington and including the inaugural race weekend at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas on May 22-23. That two-race trial will help shape the protocols for access going forward, as vaccine availability helps the sports world and the country loosen the pandemic’s grip.

As infield access has grown in small measures, so has the reopening of the grandstands. On Friday, both Darlington and Daytona International Speedway announced that their races scheduled for later this season would be open to full attendance. Those two tracks joined Atlanta, Pocono and Sonoma among the venues planning to end restrictions on the number of spectators allowed through the doors later this year.

Darlington hosted limited fans in the stands for its throwback weekend, but those numbers — in the seating areas and the infield — should rise when NASCAR returns for the traditional Labor Day date. So will the crowd reaction, and in turn, so will the buzz.

“It’s encouraging,” said Denny Hamlin, the Cup Series points leader. “Seeing more people on pit lane is always a little more encouraging and a lot more fun from our standpoint. It gets the energy going a little bit better for the event, so definitely hoping we continue this direction that we’re in.”

Besides the positives of increased fan interaction, this weekend’s soft reopening was also a boon to race teams from the business side. Organizations were able to greet sponsors and provide the “behind the ropes” experience that has become the hallmark of business-to-business relationships in the NASCAR industry. It’s one thing to make the financial commitment to sponsorship; it’s quite another full-on rush from seeing your company’s logo whisk by at triple-digit speeds in person. That’s a different sort of zoom meeting.

“It’s so important for us. Some of the key players that our sponsors have such interest in it, and they love being here and being a part of it,” said Coach Joe Gibbs, who regularly emphasizes how sponsorship makes his four-car effort go. “Today we had guys flying in from all over, (Bass Pro Shops owner) Johnny Morris coming in. It’s great for us to have things opening up. I’m hoping we get back to our fans being — evidently in the fall we’re going to have the place packed.

“But it’s very, very important, too, to get those key people from the companies back into our sport, and I’m looking forward to getting to go again and do hospitalities. So all of that is coming, but it is very, very important today.”

In that sense, the weekend was a sort of reunion on multiple levels. NASCAR continued the annual throwback tradition of getting back in touch with its rich history, and many infield guests safely reconnected after months of work-from-home isolation away from the track.

School was back in session, and all indications are that class sizes are prepared to grow.

“It’s nice to start getting back to normal, getting more fans in the stands and packing the house and putting on a good show for everybody,” said Ben Beshore, crew chief for Gibbs’ No. 18 Toyota and driver Kyle Busch. “That’s what NASCAR is all about and looking forward to getting back there.”

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Staff Report

JR Motorsports and the No. 9 team of Noah Gragson will appeal the penalty NASCAR levied against them after Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway, as confirmed by the team on Monday.

During post-race inspection, Gragson’s No. 9 Chevrolet was found to be in violation of Rule 20.14.c in the NASCAR Rule Book, which states: “All suspension mounts and mounting hardware must not allow movement or realignment of any suspension and/or drivetrain component beyond normal rotation or suspension and/or drivetrain travel.”

Gragson’s fourth-place finish was disqualified, and Gragson lost the $100,000 bonus that would have gone along with that for being the highest-finishing Dash 4 Cash-eligible driver. That award instead went to AJ Allmendinger, who was the next-highest finishing Dash 4 Cash driver. The penalty also stripped Gragson of the ability to compete for the Dash 4 Cash prize next weekend at Dover International Speedway.

Posted on May 9, 2021May 9, 2021 by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — On a day when anyone not named Martin Truex Jr. was fighting to be the best of the rest, Kyle Larson nearly stole the spotlight from the NASCAR Cup Series season’s only three-time winner at Darlington Raceway. Credit his blistering run through traffic in the final stage, including a bold, three-wide maneuver worthy of the highlight reels on one of the toughest tracks around.

Second place was the best the Hendrick Motorsports driver could muster in Sunday’s Goodyear 400, as Larson recovered from an early pit-road speeding penalty and nearly joined Truex among the ranks of the multiple-race winners. The effort was remarkable not just for how it soothed the heartache of three straight subpar finishes, but also for how the pressure he applied down the stretch rated on the ferocity scale when no one else could.

“We definitely needed to get a good finish. I thought we were going to get one last week and I messed that up,” Larson said, making a nod to his strong performance last weekend at Kansas that unraveled late. “Three bad weeks in a row, and to come back and contend for a win and finish second and get good stage points after speeding at the end of the first stage, too, yeah, it was a good day.”

Truex led 248 of the 293 laps, stretching his advantage to several seconds at certain points. He had few serious challengers until Larson’s late rise to lurk just a few car-lengths back as the sun began to set.

With plenty of slipping around on Darlington’s well-worn surface, Larson made the most of the scenario with a daring move with eight laps remaining, splitting the middle of Tyler Reddick’s No. 8 Chevy on the high side and Ryan Newman’s No. 6 Ford in the low groove. Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet tiptoed through on the narrow 1.366-mile layout and emerged in an albeit vain attempt to keep Truex within reach.

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

“Well, they’re both really aggressive drivers, so I didn’t want to get stuck behind them because I knew if I didn’t clear them then, I would definitely not have an opportunity to get by or get close to Martin,” Larson said. “I saw a door open up a little bit, and I stuck my nose in there and came out the other side. It was pretty intense, but that’s what I felt like I needed to do at that point to give myself a shot to win, but even once I cleared them, I was struggling at that point and Martin was getting away from me.”

Larson noted the sense of urgency he felt when making the move. From No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels’ vantage point, it had some elements of a hold-your-breath moment.

“A little bit,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “From what I’ve seen of him, just over the years and watching his sprint-car stuff, he knows how much lap traffic can hurt you the next corner if you have the opportunity to get them in this corner and you don’t, so a lot of times, his mindset is to go ahead and get lap traffic now, whenever that moment is. And I get it. He knew what was around him, he knew what was at stake and certainly the win was on the line and he had to get all that he could.”

Even so, Larson said he had to force himself to stay calm and not to abuse his equipment as he closed in.

“When the leader is in front of you it is tougher to remind yourself. But in a way, I maybe was too patient at one point,” Larson said. “I got to his back bumper in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I could see he was struggling in front of me, and I thought, well, if I am just patient here and stay behind him and put some pressure on him, maybe he’ll use his stuff up or get into the wall in 3 and 4 because he was running so close to it. So I was just hoping that he would make a mistake. Looking back if there was something I could do different I would have taken advantage of that opportunity and tried to get to his inside and maybe tried to clear him off of 2 and maybe block him in my dirty air the rest of the race.”

MORE: Cup Series standings

Larson never quite got that chance, and Truex pushed his margin to a 2.571-second gap by the checkered flag. Even though Larson may have gently second-guessed his late-race pursuit, he had his crew chief’s vote of confidence.

“He’s so in control of himself in that environment. He knows what’s around him,” Daniels said. “When he gets to race sprint cars and his late model, there’s so much driver element to those that you kind of learn your surroundings that he knows when to go and he knows when to be smart. So I trusted him the whole time we were in traffic and just hoped we had enough to get the 19.”

Larson gained three spots in the Cup Series standings, reversing three consecutive weeks of misfortune. That stretch included an 18th-place day at Richmond Raceway, a last-place result after a way-too-early engine failure at Talladega Superspeedway and 19th at Kansas Speedway after leading a race-best 132 laps.

Daniels was among those savoring the turnaround for a team that has been among the circuit’s strongest this year.

“We were OK today, had to overcome a speeding penalty, and every week, we’re just trying to build on the week before,” Daniels said. “It’s been a tough last three weeks for the results, but I think especially last week, we had a very dominant car. Today, I don’t know if it was a dominant car or not because we never really had a chance to show it, but I think we were close. The competition’s certainly not going to slow down, so we can’t either.”