#78-Regan Smith won the Showtime Southern 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway for the first win of his career. He stayed on track during the last caution and held off #99-Edwards on a green-white-checker finish.
Edwards held on to finish second followed by #2-Keselowski, #4-Kahne (the pole sitter), #39-Newman, #11-Hamlin, #14-Stewart, #16-Biffle, #1-McMurray, and #56-Truex, Jr.
#29-Harvick and #18-Busch were called to the NASCAR hauler after the race. They were involved in the accident that brought out the final caution of the night. Then as cars were headed to pit road after the checkered flag, they parked next to one another on pit road and Harvick got out of his car to confront Busch, when Busch took off and pushed Harvick’s car out of the way and into the pitwall.
The win was the 5th ever for a car #78 and the first since Jim Paschal won at Columbia, SC running the #78 on July 9, 1955 [see wins by car number page].
There were 21 lead changes among 12 drivers; 11 cautions for 46 yellow flag laps. The attendance is listed as 61,000, down from 67,000 last year.
Scheduled Race Re-Air: Wednesday, May 11 at 12:00pm/et on SPEED
See race results, awards, laps led and more on Jayski’s Darlington Race Results/Awards page.(5-7-2011)
