NASCAR at Darlington live updates: Martin Truex Jr. dominates, wins Goodyear 400

All updates from this race have concluded. Find a recap and full analysis of Sunday’s race at Darlington here.

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway is today. The Goodyear 400 race starts at 3:30 p.m. on FS1.

The race is 293 laps (400.2 miles) with stages ending on laps 90, 185 and 293. All times are Eastern.

Check back here for live updates throughout the race and follow NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev on Twitter at @AndrejevAlex.

Race results

Stage 3

Final: Martin Truex Jr. holds off a late charge from Kyle Larson to win the Goodyear 400. Truex led 248 of 293 laps. Larson was second and rest of top five was Kyle Busch, William Byron and Denny Hamlin.

6:49 p.m., Lap 275: Kyle Larson making a late-race push and is less than a second behind dominant car Martin Truex Jr.

6:27 p.m., Lap 234: Green flag pit stops are complete and Martin Truex still dominating. Leads by 2.5 seconds over Kyle Busch.

6:10 p.m., Lap 202: Erik Jones has to head down pit road after a tire went down and he hit the wall. No caution brought out. Martin Truex still leads by almost a second by Kyle Busch.

Stage 2

Lap 185: Martin Truex Jr. sweeps both stages at Darlington leading by almost 15 seconds. He’s led nearly 76 percent of today’s laps. Kyle Busch, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher follow in the top-10 for stage points.

5:43 p.m., Lap 166: Brad Keselowski is on pit road while running a lap down for what he thought was a flat tire. His team tells him the car looks OK. He’s running in 28th and three laps down after the stop. Meanwhile, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead with a 10+ second lead over Kyle Busch in second place.

5:34 p.m., Lap 150: Martin Truex Jr. returns to the lead after green flag pit stops cycle through, with Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher briefly holding the lead before they pit later. Kyle Larson is up to seventh after his earlier speeding penalty. And Denny Hamlin is in fifth with the different tire strategy. Brad Keselowski

5:26 p.m., Lap 139: Alex Bowman pits after making contact with Ryan Blaney and Blaney follows to pit road. They start the green flag pit stop cycle, and on Lap 143, Hamlin pits and will have an extra set of tires.

5:22 p.m., Lap 127: Denny Hamlin elects to stay out under the caution while Martin Truex pits from the lead for new tires. Hamlin inherits the lead for the restart, but he falls back to sixth after 15 laps when the race goes green again.

5:05 p.m., Lap 108: The caution comes back out quickly for another spin. This time it’s Kurt Busch after contact with Bubba Wallace. Busch slows down the frontstretch then rolls his No. 1 car to a stop with it goes up in flames from underneath. Wallace was supposed to be the free pass, but NASCAR deems that because he was involved in the accident, he will not be the beneficiary. Christopher Bell then gets a speeding penalty on pit road.

4:55 p.m., Lap 100: Cole Custer spins on the backstretch and takes a hard hit into a SAFER barrier after contact with Anthony Alfredo. He’s OK and gets out of his car, but the No. 41 is smashed up and he will exit the race.

Stage 1

4:47 p.m., Lap 90: Martin Truex Jr. wins his fifth stage of the season at Darlington. The order in the top-10 is Truex, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman. “I cut the 23 as many breaks as I could there,” Truex says on his radio. He says that Wallace, who he lapped at the end of the stage, nearly put him into the wall as they were both running the high line.

4:33 p.m., Lap 70: Martin Truex Jr. is back to the lead after pitting for tires. He’s followed by Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick out front, but the leaders are getting ready to hit traffic. “Use that clean air to your advantage,” Reddick’s radio says. “We’ll run down that 4.”

4:22 p.m., Lap 63: Green flag pit stops are underway. Leaders Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin pit, and Ross Chastain has taken over the first place spot. The field follows Kevin Harvick and William Byron for pit stops.

4:18 p.m., Lap 44: Tyler Reddick is up to second and Denny Hamlin is into third ahead of Kevin Harvick. Martin Truex Jr. is still leading. “I just have no rear grip,” Harvick says.

4:10 p.m., Lap 30: Martin Truex Jr. leads off the restart, followed by Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick. Chase Elliott is up to 17th after having to drop to the back for the start. Reddick moved up to third from a 10th place start.

4:02 p.m., Lap 23: Caution is out for a spin by the leader! Kyle Busch pits for four tires after a flat rear tire sends him into the wall. Martin Truex Jr. takes the lead as Busch wiggles just shy of leading 18,000 career laps. This will serve as the competition caution. “You’re right rear just unraveled. Corded on the outside. Just unwound itself,” the No. 18 radio says of the tire issue. “I’m just glad it was the right rear not the front. F---ing Loudon last year,” Busch responds. His team says his car is in pretty good shape.

3:55 p.m., Lap 11: Kyle Busch lines up in the inside lane for the restart and fires off to pass Kevin Harvick for the lead after the race goes green again. The running order then shifts to Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Harvick in the top-three followed by Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano.

3:50 p.m., Lap 7: Kevin Harvick is the race leader, taking the top spot from pole-sitter Brad Keselowski on Lap 6, just before the first caution comes out for Aric Amirola, who smashed into the inside wall on the backstretch after getting clipped from behind from Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“I cannot believe this,” Almirola says on his radio.

This is Almirola’s eighth finish of 20th or lower in 12 races this season. He also had to drop to the rear for the start of the race after his car twice failed pre-race inspection.

Pre-race

3:34 p.m.: Green flag! Brad Keselowski is lined up on the inside and Kevin Harvick is on the outside for 293 laps at Darlington. Tyler Reddick is the first driver to earn a Darlington stripe, as he scrapes the wall. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also appeared to make slight contact with the wall. “We’ll be fine,” Reddick’s radio says.

3:30 p.m.: Pre-race ceremonies are underway and complete with a flyover, semi-full grandstands (~35 percent capacity, per NBC Sports) and lots of boos for Kyle Busch and cheers for Chase Elliott during introductions. The “moms of NASCAR Hall of Famers” give a virtual command via a recorded video. Let’s get ready for racing!

2:30 p.m.: NASCAR announces that two cars will drop to the rear for today’s race: The No. 10 Ford driven by Aric Almirola for twice failing pre-race technical inspection and the No. 9 Chevrolet driven by Chase Elliott for unapproved adjustments. Almirola was slated to start 27th and Elliott was slated to start sixth. Both teams are honoring NASCAR Hall of Famers with their Throwback paint schemes, with Almirola nodding to Mark Martin and Elliott throwing it back to Alan Kulwicki. Read more about their paint schemes here.

2 p.m.: Coming up for today’s honorary guests for the Throwback weekend race, which nods to NASCAR’s history, are Leonard Wood, Bill Elliott and Dale Inman. Wood will drive parade laps ahead of the race in a 1971 restored Ford Mercury that David Pearson, Darlington’s all-time winningest driver, competed in. Elliott will also make parade laps in a restored version of the No. 9 Coors Motorcraft Ford Thunderbird from his 1988 Cup championship season. Inman will wave the green flag to start the race.

Darlington Raceway is also celebrating Mother’s Day by handing out flowers to the first 1,000 mothers who enter the gates for today’s race. The track announced last week that it will open its grandstands to full capacity for the NASCAR playoff race weekend at Darlington Sept. 4-5.

1 p.m.: Cars have rolled through pre-race technical inspection and are lined up on the grid. Aric Almirola’s No. 10 Ford had two inspection failures, according to FOX Sports, and will be dropping to the rear for the race. Almirola was previously slated to start 27th. NASCAR has not yet released an official list of those dropping to the back.

How to watch NASCAR race at Darlington

Starting lineup for NASCAR at Darlington

This story was originally published May 9, 2021 at 2:30 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription