Ryan Newman, who had taken charge late in the
race, chose to stay on the track while Biffle and several other contenders
pitted for tires. When the green flag waved again for a two-lap shootout,
beginning on lap 369, Biffle, taking advantage of those fresh tires, charged
from fourth. He passed Carl Edwards, Ken Schrader and, finally, Newman before
taking the white flag for the last lap.
He went on to win easily, adding the Dodge Charger 500 to victories earlier this
season in California and Texas. Biffle's No. 16 Ford led 176 of the 370 laps,
beating the Chevrolet of runner-up Jeff Gordon, a six-time Darlington winner, to
the finish by 0.989 seconds -- about six car-lengths.
Biffle fended off a series of challenges from Newman, second-year driver Kasey Kahne, Gordon and series points leader Jimmie Johnson, who had won the two
previous races at the South Carolina track.
The 35-year-old driver gave team owner Jack Roush his
fifth victory in the first 10 races of the season. Defending series champion
Kurt Busch and Edwards have each won one race for Roush in 2005.
Kahne, who started from the pole, finished third, followed by Martin, Newman,
Jamie McMurray and Johnson, who charged back after making an unscheduled pit
stop on lap 260 and falling to 23rd, a lap off the pace.
Michael Waltrip and Jeff Green seem to prove that they were the ones
"To Tough To Tame"when the two drivers got together going down the
backstretch sending Waltrip into the Turn 3 wall. But that would not be the last
time these two would tangle under the lights.
Waltrip took his 15 Chevrolet into the garage
area for repairs and would return later to what seem to seek revenge on the 43
Chevy of Green. On lap 83 it happened. Waltrip bumped Green going into Turn 4,
then hitting twice more before sending Green spinning on the backstretch.
NASCAR ended up bring the 15 in for a one lap
penalty for rough driving. Both drivers were ask to report to the Nextel hauler
after the race. "They just asked us that we not get around each other" Waltrip
said when exiting the NASCAR Trailer.
Kurt Busch night also ended before it started. On the very first lap the 2004
Nextel Cup Champion car got loose and spun in Turns 3 and 4 and hit the inside
wall, sending him to the garage area to fix the damage. He returned 60 laps down
when a caution came out for debris on the track on lap 318.
During the caution, NASCAR had asked Busch to stop on the track to let the
pace car and the leaders by. When Busch refused, NASCAR brought him down pit
road.
A NASCAR official had ask Busch to shut down his motor. Instead the 2004
Champion revved the engine and made a few choice words over the radio. Prompting
NASCAR to summons Busch to the transporter after the race.
It was a sold out race of over 60,000 for the first night race at Darlington
and "The Lady In Black" strutted her stuff to try to convince NASCAR and Brian
France that this track deserves to stay on the schedule. We can only hope that
she will live to see another race.
Dodge
Charger 500 Results
By: Eddie