DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Regan Smith turned his worst qualifying performance of the season into his first win.
Smith held off Carl Edwards on a green-white-checkered restart to win Saturday night's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway -- his first Sprint Cup Series victory.
"What a feeling! What a feeling!" said Smith's crew chief, Regan Smith, as the race ended and chaos erupted all over the track.
As Smith celebrated his win, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were trading wrecks and Harvick ran up to the window of Busch's car and threw several punches. Busch responded by knocking Harvick's car out of the way and driving down pit road.
Brad Keselowski finished third, Kasey Kahne fourth and Ryan Newman was fifth.
Pole-winner Kasey Kahne took control of the race early, leading 70 of the first 114 laps.
Jimmie Johnson experienced problems early, getting hit by Juan Pablo Montoya and spun on Lap 84. There was little damage to the car and Johnson was able to continue on.
Kyle Busch passed Carl Edwards to take the lead on Lap 124 and led 78 of the next 81 laps before Edwards resumed the lead on Lap 205.
Johnson spun again this time on his own on Lap 221 to bring out the sixth caution of the race. On the restart on Lap 226, Edwards continued to lead followed by Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.
David Ragan spun on Lap 230 and while turning back up the track, caught Brian Vickers' No. 83 Toyota and basically tore the left side off the car. .
Jeff Burton blew his engine with 10 laps left, sending most of the lead-lap cars on pit road. Three cars stayed out Regan Smith, Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart and they took over the top three positions on the restart on Lap 363. They were followed by Edwards and Kahne.
Kyle Busch and Harvick traded bumps on Lap 364 which eventually ended with Harvick tagging his teammate Clint Bowyer and doing damage to both cars. Regan Smith held the lead with two laps remaining.
freep.com
