Edwards holds off Hamlin at Darlington

Five-hour race slowed by record 18 cautions

Associated Press

DARLINGTON , S.C.

Carl Edwards took the lead on the last pit stop and held off Denny Hamlin on a restart eight laps from the end for his first Southern 500 victory Sunday night.

Edwards was two laps behind early in the long, long, nearly five-hour NASCAR Sprint Cup race, slowed by a record 18 cautions at Darlington Raceway.

Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski was second and Hamlin finished third. Joey Logano was fourth, followed by defending race champion Kevin Harvick and the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle.

Edwards won for the second time this season, and gave Joe Gibbs Racing its seventh victory in the last 10 events. JGR swept the weekend, with Hamlin winning the Xfinity race Saturday.

Edwards did his signature victory backflip in the race’s return to Labor Day weekend.

“I guess we made it Carlington for a couple of minutes,” Edwards said as he crew taped over part of the “D” on the painted Darlington sign along a retaining wall. “This is the Southern 500. This is amazing.”

It’s the seventh time in 11 seasons as a fulltime driver Edwards has won multiple races.

Keselowski started on the pole and by far led the most laps with 196. But he was beaten out of the pits by Edwards on Darlington’s record-setting 18th caution period with 12 laps left.

Almost as much as drivers enjoyed Darlington’s throwback paint schemes and retro-1970s theme, they loved the low downforce package given the cars — the same that was used to rave driver reviews in Kentucky earlier this year.

“Man, I loved it. This is as good as it gets,” Edwards said. “This is what it’s about: sliding cars, the tires falling off. If there’s any way we can run this in the Chase, I hope we do it.”

Keselowski agreed. “It separates the race car drivers from the pretenders and that’s the way it should be,” he said.

NASCAR returned the Southern 500 to Labor Day weekend for the first time since 2003.