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 "Our guys never quit," Edwards said. "JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) is
unbelievable. These guys have been working so hard. ... I know a lot
of fans came down to enjoy this race. It's the 75th Cup win for
Toyota -- Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) -- everyone has
been so amazing. We started this team, and they believed in us."
Brad Keselowski finished second. Denny Hamlin was third, Joey Logano
fourth, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
"I just needed Carl to move up into the race track a little bit to
give me a little bit of air on the inside and I maybe had a run at
him," Hamlin said. "My guess is he wanted to win the race just as
bad as I did.
"Congratulations to those guys. (They) had a great restart. (The)
Sport Clips Toyota was really fast on the long run; we just never
got long runs today. I've never seen a Darlington with that many
cautions before, and our car was so fast once we got 20 laps on our
tires, but we struggled on restarts. I'm happy with third
considering where we were with about 20 or 30 to go."
For the win, Edwards had to recover from going two laps down earlier
in the race when miscommunication left him on the track during a
caution and resulted a green-flag stop later.
"We call Darian (Grubb, crew chief) 'Kenny Rogers' because he's a
gambler, and someone actually put a Kenny Rogers poster up in the
hauler. He's not scared to try things and make it happen, and
everybody just did a great job tonight. My pit crew was amazing. I
mean, these guys, they're unreal. They won the race for us, and just
so proud to be driving this car with these people."
Keselowski led a race-high 196 of the 367 laps. He was up front at
the halfway point of the race but lost the lead to Kurt Busch on a
restart following a lap-198 yellow flag.
"I needed to be a little bit better everywhere," Keselowski said.
"Needed to be better on the restarts and a little better probably
because I brushed the wall a little bit here. I just needed to be a
little bit better everywhere to have a shot at the win."
Tony Stewart took the lead after staying out during another caution
a few laps later, but cars with newer tires got back to the front,
with Hamlin taking over the lead on lap 222 and Harvick moving into
second a few laps later.
Harvick and Logano each led laps before Keselowski got back to the
front by getting off pit road first during a lap-301 caution.
Keselowski continued to lead while Harvick and Edwards battled back
and forth for second until the final yellow flag.
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"We had a great Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet all night long,"
Harvick said. "I'm definitely happy with that part. All in all, the
car performed really well when we needed it to. We were in the race,
and we just got a little too far behind with eight laps to go and
never made that up. We've got to brush up on that, but all in all,
the car performed well. We just got bit there at the end."
Keselowski dominated the first half of the race. After starting on
the pole, he led until the third caution on lap 61. Edwards stayed
out, and Kasey Kahne took only two tires as they restarted first and
second. Their strategies didn't pan out, as they both lost several
positions when the race returned to green.
Hamlin took the top spot when Edwards and Kahne struggled.
Keselowski, though, retook the lead on lap 118. Harvick moved in
front on a restart following a lap-134 caution, but Keselowski soon
took back the spot.
Hamlin continued to run near the front before pitting while others
stayed out during a yellow flag on lap 120. He restarted 15th but
worked his way back up to restart inside the top five after a
lap-166 caution.
NOTES: For the Southern 500, NASCAR implemented a race-specific
aerodynamic package that included a 3 1/2-inch spoiler, a
quarter-inch splitter and 25-inch radiator pan. It was the same
package used at Kentucky Speedway in July, but Goodyear provided a
softer tire to go with the package at Darlington. ... The race
marked a return to the traditional Labor Day weekend date that the
Southern 500 held from 1950 until 2003. To celebrate, more than 30
cars in the race were adorned in retro paint schemes. ... Kevin
Harvick won last year's Southern 500. ... Several Sprint Cup Series
drivers competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington on
Saturday. Denny Hamlin won, and Kyle Busch finished second. ... Jeff
Gordon is a seven-time winner at Darlington, with a record six of
those wins coming in the Southern 500. ... Kyle Busch had to start
the race in a backup car after wrecking his primary vehicle in
practice Friday. He didn't have to drop to the back to start the
race, though, as he qualified in his backup car.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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