Race winner Kyle Busch takes a bow.  He is the hottest driver in NASCAR right now.

Toyota

DARLINGTON, S. C. - Kyle Busch made it clear Saturday night that he demands respect, and the 22-year-old driver proved that he deserves it with a convincing victory in Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the newly resurfaced Darlington Raceway.

This time, he didn’t have to spin anyone out to do it.

Just one week removed from his late race run-in with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. that cost him a victory at Richmond, Busch fought his way back from being a lap down to earn his first career victory at the “track too tough to tame”, beating out Carl Edwards by more than three seconds to notch his third victory of the season. Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt, Jr. and David Ragan followed.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Busch on victory lane. “Darlington showed again tonight that it’s one of the hardest places – always has been, always will be. Even with fresh asphalt this place is tough.”

Busch led 169 of the 367 laps despite a racecar that Busch called "the most pathetic he's seen in his life”, battling back from brake problems, a pit road miscue and so many scrapes against the wall that his no. 18 Toyota was missing most of its right-side decals.

“It just doesn’t turn,” Busch said of the new car. “It doesn’t want to do what it needs to do here. Anytime you want to get by somebody, you just have to save your stuff and try to maneuver past them somehow, someway, but it’s hard to do.”

Race winner Kyle Busch leads Dale Earnhardt Jr.  The two got together battling for the lead last weekend

Toyota

Busch had been the topic of conversation among the media and fans alike over the past week after contact with Earnhardt, Jr. in the closing laps of last weekend’s race cost both he and Earnhardt a chance at a victory.

Busch’s actions on the track have led to him becoming one of the least popular drivers among the fans, who thoroughly booed Busch during pre-race driver introductions.

Despite his victory, Busch did little to win back the favor of the NASCAR fans, finishing off his victory burnout with a sarcastic bow to the sell-out crowd.

“I don’t care,” said Busch of his rude welcome from the fans. “I’m here to race, I’m here to win. If I win, it just makes ‘em more upset and crying on their way home.”

Busch had led 62 of the first 110 laps and was solidly in the top five before being penalized for a missing lug nut on lap 142.

Busch raced his way back onto the lead lap and moved back into the top five on lap 252 and just 18 laps later Busch was back in front of the field, moving past Gordon to re-take the top spot.

Busch and Gordon traded the lead again before Busch beat everyone off pit road during the final round of pit stops with 63 laps to go, leaving Edwards and Gordon behind as the race went green the rest of the way.

Edwards was snakebitten by the same vibration problem that plagued his four Roush-Fenway teammates, but Edwards stuck it out to pull out his fifth top-five finish of the season.

“My hat’s off to Kyle,” said Edwards. “I wanted to beat him so bad.”

“I’m definitely disappointed to finish second. Kyle had the fastest car tonight, he was pretty unbeatable. To finish second, beat the rest of the field, that’s pretty good from where we came from.”

Gordon’s third-place finish was only his fourth of the season, but a big comeback following his four previous finishes.

“We are definitely making big strides,” said Gordon. “(Crew chief) Steve Letarte just did an awesome job, he has these guys in the pits on their game, getting us out (of the pits) and gaining us spots all night long.  All I did was keep it off the wall.”

Gordon seemed to be able to keep up with Busch through the later stages of the race, but in the end Busch proved to have the strongest car in the field.

“I can tell you one thing, it wasn’t because of aerodynamics tonight because Kyle hit the wall I can’t tell you how many times,” said Gordon. “His right side was destroyed.”

Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney and Jeff Burton rounded out the top ten.

Kyle Busch continues to lead the series point’s standings, followed by Burton, Earnhardt, Jr., Hamlin and Clint Bowyer.

Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	6	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Mint Crisp M&M's "Indiana Jones"	195/10	367	Running
2	36	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Claritin	170/0	367	Running
3	8	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	170/5	367	Running
4	2	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Mountain Dew / AMP Energy / Nat'l Guard	165/5	367	Running
5	15	6	David Ragan	Ford	AAA Insurance	160/5	367	Running
6	34	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	DEWALT NANO Technology	155/5	367	Running
7	21	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	151/5	367	Running
8	24	28	Travis Kvapil	Ford	LaFayette Ford	147/5	367	Running
9	13	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Caterpillar	138/0	367	Running
10	12	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	AT&T Mobility	134/0	367	Running
11	25	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Crown Royal	135/5	367	Running
12	5	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	132/5	367	Running
13	3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's	124/0	367	Running
14	22	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	126/5	367	Running
15	38	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Jack Daniel's	118/0	367	Running
16	27	8	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	115/0	367	Running
17	9	66	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	State Water Heaters	112/0	367	Running
18	10	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Cheerios / Betty Crocker	109/0	367	Running
19	30	44	David Reutimann	Toyota	UPS	106/0	367	Running
20	33	38	David Gilliland	Ford	FreeCreditReport.com	108/5	367	Running
21	4	20	Tony Stewart	Toyota	The Home Depot	100/0	365	Running
22	42	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	102/5	365	Running
23	19	42	Juan Montoya	Dodge	Wrigley's Big Red	94/0	365	Running
24	37	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA AUTO PARTS	91/0	364	Running
25	28	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	88/0	364	Running
26	31	96	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	DLP HDTV	90/5	364	Running
27	26	84	A.J. Allmendinger	Toyota	Red Bull	82/0	363	Running
28	18	00	Michael McDowell *	Toyota	Brain Cancer Action Week	79/0	363	Running
29	16	01	Regan Smith *	Chevrolet	DEI / Principal Financial Group	76/0	362	Running
30	20	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Motorcraft	73/0	362	Running
31	17	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing	70/0	362	Running
32	39	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Target	67/0	361	Running
33	40	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Jim Beam	64/0	360	Running
34	14	40	Sterling Marlin	Dodge	Dodge Challenger	61/0	349	Running
35	29	5	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Kellogg's / CARQUEST	58/0	340	Running
36	41	15	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	NIBCO / Menards	55/0	339	Running
37	32	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Alltel	52/0	294	Running
38	23	77	Sam Hornish Jr. *	Dodge	Mobil 1	49/0	269	Running
39	11	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	46/0	264	Running
40	43	10	Patrick Carpentier *	Dodge	LifeLock	48/5	262	Out of Race
41	35	45	Kyle Petty	Dodge	Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil	40/0	249	Running
42	7	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	McDonald's	37/0	246	Running
43	1	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	39/5	234	Out of Race