A look back at Kyle Busch's seventh career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway including news, notes and observations by the RacingOne staff.
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Inside Line Kyle Busch came back from a pit road penalty to become the youngest winner in the history of Darlington Raceway in Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500.
Keys to Victory Lane Busch came back from being penalized for a loose lug nut after an early race pit stop and also survived several encounters with the wall to win his first career race at Darlington.
Zero to Hero Carl Edwards started the night 36th and like Busch also battled back to post a runner-up finish.
Hero to Zero Polesitter Greg Biffle was in command in the first half of the race until a loose wheel and then an engine failure doomed him to a 43rd-place finish.
Rookie of the Race Michael McDowell's 28th-place finish was the best of the rookie crop.
Notables Matt Kenseth started 34th and survived a couple of slides to finish sixth. Travis Kvapil gave the struggling Yates Racing team a much needed solid run with an eighth-place finish. And Dave Blaney drove the Bill Davis Racing Caterpillar Toyota home ninth.
Top 35 Standings Sam Hornish Jr. is 34th while Blaney is now on the bubble in 35th with J.J. Yeley sliding to 36th and Joe Nemechek moved up to 37th.
Dodge Challenger 500 Loop Data
Average Running Position: Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 3.842
Fastest Early In a Run: Kyle Busch - 169.430 mph
Fastest Late In a Run: Denny Hamlin - 163.886 mph
Fastest Laps Run: Kyle Busch - 56
Fastest on Restarts: Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 166.977 mph
Most Passes During Green Flag Conditions: Denny Hamlin - 110
Laps In Top 15: Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 365
Quality Passes: Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin - 64
Speed in Traffic: Dave Blaney - 163.875 mph
Pit Stops
Kyle Busch captured his seventh career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in his 125th career start. Detailed Active Driver Wins
Busch became the fourth driver to win at Darlington from the sixth position. He also became the 91st driver overall to win a race from that position. Starting Position Facts
Kudos to Darlington Raceway and the fans for selling out the Mother's Day eve race for the fourth straight year.
Think Greg Biffle has his agent working overtime?
Elliott Sadler is lucky he got the finger salute from Tony Stewart that he did and not some other digit.
Wonder how much Sam Hornish, Jr. missed not being in Indy Saturday?
Are Casey Mears' days at Hendrick numbered?
Only five more races for Fox's annoying "Digger."
Garage Talk
"Where was Harrison Ford tonight? His face was on the car. I really wanted to talk to him." -Carl Edwards
"We know we have some work to do." - Jeff Gordon
"You're scaring the fans. There's not enough security up the Turn 2 wall. Just nice and easy." - Kyle Busch's spotter Jeff Dickerson
"Keep it up everybody. ... We need to keep that bull's eye on us, where everybody is shooting at us." - Kyle Busch on the fans booing.
RacingOne Rating On a scale of one to 10ten minnows from the world-famous pond of Darlington legend, we'll give Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 a six. Mostly just because it's Darlington. The race itself had a few moments but few and far between in terms of passing and side-by-side racing, as many predicted with the new surface. Thankfully we didn't see a crashfest. That most likely will be the theme next week for the annual Sprint All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
