DARLINGTON, S.C. — Regan Smith moved in front on a caution nine laps from the end and survived a green-white-checker finish to win the Southern 500 for his first Sprint Cup victory Saturday night.
Smith held off Carl Edwards the final two laps at Darlington Raceway in a race that turned ugly late when Kyle Busch tangled with Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer to set up the overtime finish.
After the race, Harvick tracked down Busch’s car, stopped in front of Busch on pit road, then got out of his car and attempted to punch or grab Busch through his window. Busch then slammed into Harvick’s driverless car, sending it crashing in the inside wall.
Harvick and Busch then stared down each other from their cars as they entered the garage before a standoff that looked as if it might erupt further. It finally ended when Busch bumped Harvick several times to make space to drive off. Both drivers were summoned to the NASCAR hauler.
Brad Keselowski finished third, pole-sitter Kasey Kahne was fourth and Ryan Newman fifth.
Smith thought he had earned a NASCAR victory in 2008 at Talladega, when NASCAR ruled he dipped below the yellow line on the final lap. Tony Stewart was ruled the winner.
There’ll be no such debate this time.
“I’m not supposed to win this race. I’ve never even had a top-five. I guess in this series, it just shows anyone can win,” said Smith, whose previous best this season was a seventh at Daytona.
Edwards appeared to be cruising to his first Darlington victory with 10 laps left in what had been about 490 miles of relatively calm racing. Instead, things changed when Jeff Burton brought out the 10th and final caution, setting up a restart with five laps left and many of NASCAR’s best not far from the lead.
Busch, Harvick and Bowyer wound up three-wide in a space where that doesn’t work, and Bowyer was sent sprawling into the interior wall. As cars spun out behind, Busch gathered his car, then veered and sent Harvick spinning.
Smith bobbled slightly on the final lap but regained control and took the win. He was in tears in Victory Lane, winning for the first time in 105 Sprint Cup starts.
“We’ve had some ups. and we’ve had some downs. This is an up,” Smith said of the Denver-based Furniture Row Racing team.
