The high speeds didn't affect Darlington's temperament. She still ate race cars all night long. Kyle Busch drove hard all night long and dared Darlington to tame him. He bounced it off the wall, received a penalty on pit road but still ran away with the race.
Qualifying
The new Darlington surface made its presence felt right away. 41 drivers broke the old track record during qualifying. Can you imagine breaking the old track record and starting 41st?
Roush-Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle was fastest in qualifying. He ran his fast lap nearly flat footed. He said he just cracked the throttle a little bit at one end of the speedway. The new Darlington is fast!
Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the outside of the front row for Hendrick Motorsports. Jimmie Johnson started right behind his teammate in third.
Tony Stewart started fourth in his Joe Gibbs Toyota. The Busch brothers made up row number three as Kurt and Kyle started fifth and sixth.
Drop Of The Green
Greg Biffle lead the first lap as Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his move to take over the lead. The racing didn't last long as Elliott Sadler came up the hill into Tony Stewart in turn one of lap two and took both drivers up into the wall.
"The Track Too Tough to Tame" took command of this race right away. Within the first twelve laps seven drivers had already been in the wall and we were already under our second caution of the day.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch were fast in the early going but the race track itself was shaping up to the the deciding factor in this one.
Storylines
Darlington Raceway was repaved since the Sprint Cup drivers were here last year. The new pavement was smooth and fast. However "The Lady in Black" still chewed up race cars like always.
Seven drivers crashed hard enough in the practice sessions leading up to the race to have to go to backup cars for the race.
When the green flag flew Darlington wasted no time claiming victims. Drivers were bouncing off the wall at both ends of the speedway. Some were just earning their Darlington Stripe by knocking some of the paint off the side. Others hit hard enough to knock themselves out of contention.
Fox Sports counted more than 40 times that cars bounced off the wall during the race.
There were surprisingly few cautions tonight, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of action. By the time the checkered flag flew I couldn't find a car on the track that had all of the paint still intact.
Chasing The Checkers
Kyle Busch was driving the wheels off it tonight. He lead early then suffered a penalty on pit road and had to make a second stop to fix a missing lug nut and dropped to 23rd. Busch then battled his way through the field and back into the lead before the race started to wind down.
After the final round of pit stops Kyle Busch set sail and drove away from the rest of the field. With fifteen laps to go he had more than three seconds over second place Carl Edwards and continued to add to his lead. Kyle Busch simply had them covered tonight at Darlington.
Top Ten
- Kyle Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Jeff Gordon
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- David Ragan
- Matt Kenseth
- Denny Hamlin
- Travis Kvapil
- Dave Blaney
- Jeff Burton
The Points
Kyle Busch came into the race as the point leader. A win tonight added to his lead over Jeff Burton who finished tenth.
At the other end of the top twelve both Jeff Gordon and David Ragan raced their way into a Chase qualifying spot. Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne fell to 13th and 14th in the standings.
The top twelve are now:
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Burton -79
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -134
- Denny Hamlin -190
- Clint Bowyer -200
- Jimmie Johnson -248
- Carl Edwards -290
- Tony Stewart -293
- Kevin Harvick -294
- Jeff Gordon -364
- Greg Biffle -382
- David Ragan -424
Next Week
Next week the Sprint Cup stars return home to Lowes Motor Speedway for the Sprint All-Star event. This race never fails to be exciting. There are no points on the line but the winner of the All-Star race will take home more than one million dollars.
Don't miss next Saturday night's shootout from Lowes Motor Speedway.
