Monday Racing Roundup: Edwards Wins 'Throwback' Southern 500
September 08, 2015 | By IMS
On a night when throwback paint schemes recalled NASCAR’s past in vivid color, and a low-downforce aerodynamic package suggested the future direction of the sport, Carl Edwards overcame early misfortune to win an exhilarating race at the Lady in Black.
Grabbing the lead thanks to a blisteringly fast pit stop under the track-record 18th caution of Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Edwards pulled away after a restart with eight laps left and beat polesitter Brad Keselowski to the finish line by .902 seconds to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the venerable 1.366-mile speedway.
An outspoken proponent of the low-downforce configuration, Edwards was thrilled with the quality of the racing and elated with his second victory of the season and the 25th of his career.
"I don’t think I can get in trouble for how much I liked it, but I loved it – this is as good as it gets," Edwards said. "This is what it’s about. We’re sliding cars, tires are falling off – this is the style of racing – if there’s any chance we can run this in the Chase, I hope we can do it. It was an awesome day."
For the record, NASCAR will run its standard 2015 competition package throughout the Chase, but the low-downforce configuration got rave reviews from a wide array of competitors.
"I loved it," Keselowski said. "It separates the race car drivers from the pretends, and that's the way it should be."
Edwards' victory didn’t come without significant adversity. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota lost two laps after staying out on old tires when the rest of the lead-lap cars came to pit road under caution on Lap 62.
That decision forced Edwards to pit early on Lap 89, and a subsequent caution for Michael Annett’s crash in Turn 2 trapped him two laps down. Edwards spent the next 200 laps working his way back to the front.
Edwards was locked in an intense three-way battle for the lead when caution for Jeb Burton’s spin in Turn 2 on Lap 355 of 367 took fuel mileage out of the equation and set up the final round of pit stops.
Edwards edged Keselowski for the top spot leaving pit road and parlayed that advantage into a hard-earned victory.
Denny Hamlin came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick. It was a late duel with Keselowski and Harvick during a 43-lap green-flag run preceding the final caution that made an indelible impression on the Missouri driver.
"A win like this is really special, especially leading into the Chase," Edwards said. "This is what we needed. We just needed a shot in the arm and needed to have a good night like this. All over, it's cool.
"I hope I never forget those last 25 laps. That was really fun, and the restart was fun, but truly racing with Brad and Kevin was a blast. I really had a good time."
In what was a banner night for Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch completed his journey back from an 11-race injury absence with a seventh-place finish that locked Busch into the top 30 in the series standings and clinched a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the four-time winner.
NASCAR XFINITY Series: Hamlin dominates at Darlington
You could call polesitter Denny Hamlin’s victory in Saturday’s VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway "dominating," but the NASCAR XFINITY Series event wasn’t without its share of drama—courtesy of a fuel shortage and Hamlin’s own Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Daniel Suarez.
Hamlin led 117 of 147 laps at the 1.366-mile speedway but didn’t make the winning pass until Lap 145, when he surged past Suarez, who was stretching fuel after foregoing a final pit stop in hopes of stealing the victory.
The win was Hamlin’s third of the season (all from the pole), his fourth at Darlington (all from the pole) and the 20th of his career.
In a 1-2-3 finish for JGR, Kyle Busch got past Suarez, who finished third, to start the final circuit and came home in the runner-up position. But Suarez secured a $100,000 bonus as the top finisher among eligible series regulars in the final XFINITY Dash 4 Cash event of the season.
Suarez also won $100,000 for a Kurt Kolstad, a race fan paired with Suarez for the Dash 4 Cash finale.
When Hamlin brought his No. 20 Toyota to pit road under caution on Lap 72, he returned to the track after a lightning fast stop during which his team left the fuel cell slightly short of a full load.
That meant Hamlin would have to pit before his primary pursuers, Busch and Kevin Harvick, and hope the race would run caution-free for the entire cycle of stops.
Hamlin got his wish. After pitting on Lap 122 and gaining time on fresh tires, a relieved Hamlin saw the race run caution-free to the end, giving him just enough time to catch Suarez, who was saving fuel on old rubber, before the laps ran out.