DARLINGTON, S.C. — The rich southern history of NASCAR was renewed Sunday with throwback paint schemes, special memorabilia and nostalgia as the circuit raced the famed Darlington Raceway for the historic Southern 500, a career-defining race to win each season.
For Martin Truex Jr. it was as close as he had come to making up for a heartbreaking Daytona 500 loss to begin the season. Truex won a late race out of pit road and led the final 12 laps after a restart en route to his second win of the season.
While David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip dominated Darlington from this weekend's celebrated 1975-84 era, in the modern years there have now been 11 different drivers in victory lane over its last 11 races: Greg Biffle (2006), Jeff Gordon (2007), Kyle Busch (2008), Mark Martin (2009), Denny Hamlin (2010), Regan Smith (2011), Jimmie Johnson (2012), Matt Kenseth (2013), Kevin Harvick (2014), Carl Edwards (2015) and Truex (2016).