Who won the NASCAR race yesterday? Complete results from Darlington race

The winner of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway was the epitome of a front-runner.

Martin Truex Jr. led 248 of the race’s 293 laps as he drove to victory in the Goodyear 400. He captured his third win of the 2021 season — he’s the only multiple-race winner this year — and the 30th win of his career.

Truex held off Kyle Larson late in Stage 3 and then extended his lead to 2.571 seconds at the finish.

Below is more about Truex’s win on Sunday, plus the complete results of the race.

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Who won the NASCAR race yesterday?

Martin Truex Jr. took control of the race early and never gave it up. He swept all three stages, something that makes his run historic: He is the first stage winner at Darlington to win a race there.

“I’m glad I could do that,” Truex told Fox Sports’ Regan Smith in an on-track interview. “We’ve won a bunch of stages here in the past couple of years. It’s always Lady Luck (that) got us, track position, it would be one thing or the other.”

His team knew how dominant the No. 19 car was:

Kyle Larson tried hard to run down Truex in Stage 3 as lapped traffic slowed the leader, but Truex eventually drove off and Larson faded.

“Actually had an opportunity to get by him in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2 but I thought I’d stay patient and maybe get him to use his stuff up,” Larson told Fox Sports. “But he was a little bit better than I was on the long runs. Just wish maybe I could have taken advantage of that opportunity but I thought it was going to play out a little differently.”

NASCAR results from Darlington

Truex and Larson finished far ahead of the rest of the Goodyear 400 field on NASCAR’s annual throwback weekend. Third-place driver Kyle Busch was 6.209 seconds behind the winner. William Byron and Truex teammate Denny Hamlin completed the top five.

Hamlin maintained his big lead in the Cup Series point standings with a series-best ninth top-five finish, but also remained winless in the season’s first 12 races.

As if things couldn’t get any better for Truex, he’ll be racing at his home track, Dover (Del.) International Speedway, next Sunday in the Drydene 400 (2 p.m. ET; FS1, TSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Truex hails from Mayetta, N.J., which is about two hours northeast of the track.

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