Regan Smith has had an excellent run of qualifying for Sprint Cup races in 2011, but when it comes to the race it's all fallen apart. The nearest he's ever come to victory lane was in 2008 at Talladega, when he took the chequered flag only to be penalised for dropping below the double yellow line. It's taken three years to finally address that knock back: "This is the Southern 500—we're not supposed to win this thing!" said Smith over the radio to his crew as he headed for victory lane.
"This is no knock against Talladega at all, but I would trade in a lot of Talladega wins for one win in the Southern 500!" he added at the conclusion of the Saturday night floodlit race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
Smith owed much to Brad Keselowski who pushed him clear of Carl Edwards on the final restart. He becomes the eighth different winner in ten races in 2011, showing how varied the season has been so far. It also shows how many new faces are coming through, with Smith joining Trevor Bayne as the second first-time Sprint Cup winner of the year.
The race saw a costly solo spin for Jimmie Johnson on lap 220, and a late spat between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch that saw Harvick get spun, resulting in the two jostling cars in pit lane and Harvick running over to the #18 to swing a punch at Busch through the window.
The on-track incident also caught up Clint Bowyer in a damaging wreck just 7 laps before the end which meant that the race finished under green-white-chequered conditions and the #33 tumbled to 31st place in the final results.
A
complete race report from Darlington is also available
Race results1.
#78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 370 laps 3h53m51.000s (47/1 pts)2.
#99 Carl Edwards Ford 370 laps + 0.196s (43/1 pts)3.
#2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 370 laps + 0.861s (41/0 pts)4.
#4 Kasey Kahne Toyota 370 laps + 1.100s (42/2 pts)5.
#39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 370 laps + 1.406s (40/1 pts)6.
#11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 370 laps + 1.682s (38/0 pts)7.
#14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 370 laps + 1.796s (38/1 pts)8.
#16 Greg Biffle Ford 370 laps + 2.594s (36/0 pts)9.
#1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 370 laps + 2.635s (36/1 pts)10.
#56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 370 laps + 2.827s (35/1 pts)11.
#18 Kyle Busch Toyota 370 laps + 3.419s (34/1 pts)12.
#24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 370 laps + 3.682s (32/0 pts)13.
#9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 370 laps + 4.392s (31/0 pts)14.
#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 370 laps + 4.430s (30/0 pts)15.
#48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 370 laps + 4.874s (29/0 pts)16.
#00 David Reutimann Toyota 370 laps + 8.646s (28/0 pts)17.
#29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 370 laps + 9.729s (28/1 pts)18.
#47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 370 laps + 27.111s (27/1 pts)19.
#5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 370 laps + 1 lap (25/0 pts)20.
#43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 370 laps + 1 lap (24/0 pts)21.
#6 David Ragan Ford 370 laps + 1 lap (23/0 pts)22.
#27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 370 laps + 1 lap (22/0 pts)23.
#42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 368 laps + 2 laps (21/0 pts)24.
#36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 367 laps + 3 laps (20/0 pts)25.
#17 Matt Kenseth Ford 366 laps + 4 laps (19/0 pts)26.
#38 Travis Kvapil Ford 365 laps + 5 laps (0pts)27.
#22 Kurt Busch Dodge 364 laps + 6 laps (17/0 pts)28.
#32 Ken Schrader Ford 364 laps + 6 laps (17/1 pts)29.
#09 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 364 laps + 6 laps (0pts)30.
#13 Casey Mears Toyota 364 laps + 6 laps (15/1 pts)31.
#33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 363 laps + 7 laps (13/0 pts)32.
#34 David Gilliland Ford 362 laps + 8 laps (12/0 pts)33.
#31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 358 laps In Pit (11/0 pts)34.
#83 Brian Vickers Toyota 332 laps Running (10/0 pts)35.
#20 Joey Logano Toyota 318 laps Running (9/0 pts)36.
#37 Tony Raines Ford 172 laps In Pit (8/0 pts)37.
#7 Robby Gordon Dodge 87 laps In Pit (7/0 pts)38.
#150 T.J. Bell Toyota 67 laps In Pit (0pts)39.
#46 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 34 laps Out of Race (5/0 pts)40.
#60 Mike Skinner Toyota 29 laps In Pit (0pts)41.
#30 David Stremme Chevrolet 27 laps Out of Race (3/0 pts)42.
#87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 22 laps Out of Race (0pts)43.
#66 Michael McDowell Toyota 7 laps In Pit (1/0 pts)