Published: May 13, 2008 04:21 pm            

Kyle Busch's Darlington win greeted by boo's

Monticello — Although he and "The Track Too Tough To Tame" exchanged blows, Kyle

Busch and his No. 18 M&Ms Indiana Jones Toyota triumphed Saturday night,

winning the Dodge Challenger 500 before a sellout crowd at historic

Darlington Raceway.

As the Victory Lane interview was broadcast over the public address

system, a chorus of boos rained down from the grandstands at Darlington

Raceway.

"These guys love it. They love the noise that the fans make," Busch said

in retort. "So keep it up, everybody."

Busch earned his third win and eighth top-10 finish of 2008. He also led

seven times for a race-high 169 laps, capturing his first Darlington victory

and his ninth in 125 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. He remains the series'

standings leader for the second consecutive week.

Carl Edwards finished second, followed by Jeff Gordon in third, Dale

Earnhardt Jr., in fourth and David Ragan in fifth. Saturday's event was the

first on Darlington's newly-paved surface, which yielded a new track-record

average speed of 140.350 mph.

"First of all, my hat's off to Kyle," said Edwards. "Man, I wanted to

beat him bad. I wanted to beat him so bad. Now we're tied for wins. I wanted

to keep him down a little bit, but he did a great job. I tore it up just a

little bit on the left-front, but I definitely had a good time‹a lot better

time than last night. The new surface is growing on me. It's alright.

"Anytime you see somebody running that well, that Gibbs bunch is running

really well and you want to beat Œem. A lot of times this year we've had

some good battles and they do a great job, so my hat's off to Œem. They

earned this win, that's for sure."

Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney, and Jeff Burton

rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Polesitter Greg Biffle, who appeared to have the dominant car retired

with engine problems after 234 laps. He finished 43rd despite leading seven

times for 95 laps. Jeff Gordon led three times for 24 laps; Dale Earnhardt

Jr. four times for 35 laps.

Top-12 Chase Contenders after 11 of 36: 1. Kyle Busch-1690, 2.

Burton-1611, 3. Earnhardt-1556, 4. Hamlin-1500, 5. Bowyer-1490, 6.

Johnson-1442, 7. Edwards-1400, 8. Stewart-1397, 9. Harvick-1396, 10. J.

Gordon-1326, 11. Biffle-1308, 12. Ragan-1266

Top-10 Nationwide Series drivers after 12 of 35: 1. Bowyer-1740, 2. Kyle

Busch-1628, 3. Edwards-1590, 4. Reutimann-1572, 5. Bliss-1546, 6.

Ragan-1521, 7. Keselowski-1500, 8. Leffler-1480, 9. M. Wallace-1385, 10.

Stremme-1327

        

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