Racing roundup

NASCAR: Southern 500

Truex holds off Harvick for win

DARLINGTON, S.C.

Martin Truex Jr. took the lead with 28 laps to go and held off Kevin Harvick on the final restart to win the Southern 500 on Sunday night.

Truex started the summer season by leading an astounding 588 of 600 miles to win at Charlotte on Memorial Day weekend. He closed the season by outracing Harvick on Labor Day weekend for his second crown jewel win of the season.

Truex pulled up to the inside wall to greet his crew, then taking off for some celebration donuts at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”

Harvick had the dominant car — he led 214 of 367 laps — but this run was cut short by slow pit stops. At one point, Harvick fell 11 spots from first to 12th after a super slow 16.6-second stop. He battled back toward the top, but could not chase down Truex.

NASCAR TRUCK SERIES

Nemechek earns controversial win

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario

John Hunter Nemechek knocked Cole Custer from the lead to earn the win Sunday in a controversial finish in the NASCAR Truck Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

Custer twice held off Nemechek on a pair of late restarts, but was bumped with two turns remaining before an aggressive door-to-door drag race through the grass to the checkered flag. It took NASCAR almost 10 minutes to declare Nemechek the winner.

Custer was furious as he awaited the NASCAR ruling. Nemechek climbed from his truck in an attempt to collect the checkered flag, but Custer raced over to him and knocked Nemechek to the ground with a leaping tackle.

Custer led 39 of the 66 laps but wound up second. A victory would have put Custer into the Truck Series’ version of the playoffs.

NHRA

Force drives funny car to Traxxas Nitro win

Brownsburg, Ind.

Courtney Force won the Funny Car portion of the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout and Matt Hagan topped qualifying Sunday in the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Force sprinted to a $100,000 payday in her Chevy Camaro SS, powering to a 4.018-second pass at 266.04 mph to beat teammate Robert Hight in the final round of the specialty event.

Hagan’s topped qualifying with his Friday night performance of 3.858 at 330.80 in a Dodge Charger R/T.

Clay Millican led the Top Fuel lineup, Bo Butner topped the Pro Stock field, and Angelle Sampey paced the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders in the regular-season finale.

Millican had a track-record time of 3.692 at 316.82 on Saturday. Bo Butner pushed his Chevy Camaro to a 6.571 at 210.24, and Sampey rode her Buell to a 6.812 at 196.62.

Staff/wire reports