Hendrick Motorsports crew chief and Bark River native Greg Ives takes a seat in the No. 48 car driven by Alex Bowman for Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway. Teams rolled out old-school paint schemes for Sunday’s Cup Series race in Darlington, S.C. The seafoam and grapefruit colors were a tribute to Ives’ racing days at Norway Speedway under the guidance of his father, Roger Ives, right, who struck a similar pose in 1998. Bowman placed 17th Sunday. (Hendrick Motorsports photo)

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Martin Truex Jr. got nervous in a hurry near the end of his dominating drive at Darlington Raceway.

Barely pushed much of the race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver suddenly saw Kyle Larson catching up in the closing laps.

Truex, though, called on his steady demeanor and track focus to pull away for his third NASCAR Cup Series victory this season.

Not that it was easy.

When Truex noticed Larson right behind him inside of 30 laps left, he thought, “Oh, man, he’s right behind me.

“You’re heart rate goes up,” he continued, “You’re anxiety goes up.”

Very quickly, Truex was back to his steady, powerhouse driving at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”

Truex led 248 of the 293 laps for his 30th career victory in NASCAR’s top series. He’s the only driver with multiple wins over the year’s first 12 races.

Larson was second with Truex’s teammate, Kyle Busch, third. William Byron was fourth and Denny Hamlin, who came in as the NASCAR points’ leader, was fifth.

It was Throwback Weekend at Darlington, featuring retro paint schemes. Alex Bowman’s team honored crew chief Greg Ives with a teal and pink livery inspired by one of the cars Ives piloted during his own racing days in the Upper Peninsula.

NASCAR Cup Series

Goodyear 400 Results

Sunday at Darlington Raceway

Darlington, S.C.

Lap length: 1.37 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (4) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 293 laps, 60 points.

2. (14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 293, 48.

3. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 293, 43.

4. (5) William Byron, Chevrolet, 293, 43.

5. (7) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 293, 48.

6. (2) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 293, 37.

7. (6) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 293, 33.

8. (16) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 293, 35.

9. (11) Chris Buescher, Ford, 293, 29.

10. (20) Ryan Newman, Ford, 292, 27.

11. (22) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 292, 26.

12. (10) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 292, 36.

13. (12) Joey Logano, Ford, 292, 33.

14. (21) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 292, 28.

15. (18) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 291, 22.

16. (9) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 291, 21.

17. (19) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 291, 21.

18. (26) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 291, 19.

19. (8) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 290, 18.

20. (28) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chevrolet, 290, 17.

21. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 290, 16.

22. (30) Corey Lajoie, Chevrolet, 290, 15.

23. (15) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 290, 14.

24. (1) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 290, 13.

25. (29) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, 290, 12.

26. (25) Anthony Alfredo, Ford, 289, 11.

27. (13) Michael McDowell, Ford, 288, 10.

28. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 288, 0.

29. (34) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 286, 0.

30. (35) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 286, 7.

31. (36) James Davison, Chevrolet, 286, 6.

32. (32) BJ McLeod, Ford, 285, 0.

33. (37) Josh Bilicki, Ford, 245, 4.

34. (33) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, garage, 188, 0.

35. (17) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, accident, 106, 2.

36. (24) Cole Custer, Ford, accident, 97, 1.