Busch charges to Darlington Cup win

There's nobody stopping the 23-year-old in the Sprint Cup Series right now, despite being the 'villain' following his controversial crash with Dale Earnhardt Jr at Richmond last week.

Thousands of fans booed him during the drivers' introduction before the race but still the Gibbs driver let his driving do the talking on the track, giving a slap in the face to the 'Earnhardt Nation'.

A few beer cans were thrown at his car on his celebration lap following his seventh Cup career victory and the eighth of his NASCAR season counting his Nationwide and Truck wins. But what counts is that he bagged a perfect score that increases his lead in the drivers' standing.

Busch led the race for the first time on lap 17, but complained about fading brakes on that first part of the race. He later made contact with Greg Biffle as a consequence after he conceded the lead to the Roush Fenway driver following his first brush with the wall.

He regained the lead from Biffle, gave it back to him in return for the previous contact and then passed him again a couple of laps later. Then a pit road penalty for a loose lug nut dropped him out of the top twenty, but he charged through the field to regain the lead on lap 270.

After that he had a further two brushes with the wall, contributing to a high number of 'Darlington stripes' throughout the day. He radioed his crew saying his car was very tight, lacking grip in the front end, but despite that he went unchallenged to the chequered flag.

"These guys (in the team) love the noise the fans make, so keep it up everybody," said Busch, who dedicated victory to his mother after she had to share with his son the reaction from the fans against him in the drivers' introduction before the race and also while he celebrated in victory lane.

"The car was bad tight. Coming out of (turn) two I got bad loose. We over adjusted (the car) but you've got to be that way on new tyres here. You've got to be out of control and I was pretty much out of control and just trying to hold on to the thing.

"After we ran about 15 to 20 laps the rest of the guys fell off so much that we could just keep it along and keep going. We knew we had a good car; we just had to get to the front, get track position."

Polesitter Greg Biffle was probably Busch's toughest rival but he retired with an engine failure. His Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards was not as quick but kept improving his car though the race to finish second, although not close enough to the Indiana Jones-themed Camry of Busch.

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

Jeff Gordon finished a strong third although he didn't have enough pace to challenge for victory. However he was one of the few cars running at the front that finished the race without a stripe on the right side, although an eighth win at the 1.3-mile oval for him was not possible.

"All I did was try to keep it out of the wall," said Gordon. "Which was not easy in itself. We were off. I wish I wasn't so darn competitive because you have no idea. I am happy that we have a top-five and we are third, but also how frustrated I am because of how far off we are from winning races right now.

"We did the tyre test here at Darlington and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) just kicked everybody's tails tonight. So, we have some work to do. We have been working hard, hopefully we can get a little bit closer to them at Charlotte."

There were only eight caution periods during the race, the first of them for an incident between Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler after the latter ran up into 'Smoke' when he got loose in turn one.

However, right caution periods didn't reflect the number of incidents on the track as a good portion of the field ended up with evidence of some kind of contact with the wall at some point during the race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr was among those brushing the wall as well, but still managed a useful fourth place, leading a number of laps and finishing ahead of an impressive David Ragan, who held off his experienced teammate Matt Kenseth to the chequered flag.

Former points' leader Jeff Burton rounded up the top ten as the best of the RCR drivers and remains second in the standing, 79 points behind Kyle Busch.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch            Toyota      367
 2.  Carl Edwards          Ford        367
 3.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet   367
 4.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet   367
 5.  David Ragan           Ford        367
 6.  Matt Kenseth          Ford        367
 7.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota      367
 8.  Travis Kvapil         Ford        367
 9.  Dave Blaney           Toyota      367
10.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet   367
11.  Jamie McMurray        Ford        367
12.  Kurt Busch            Dodge       367
13.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet   367
14.  Martin Truex Jr       Chevrolet   367
15.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet   367
16.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet   367
17.  Scott Riggs           Chevrolet   367
18.  Bobby Labonte         Dodge       367
19.  David Reutimann       Toyota      367
20.  David Gilliland       Ford        367
21.  Tony Stewart          Toyota      365
22.  Kasey Kahne           Dodge       365
23.  Juan Montoya          Dodge       365
24.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota      364
25.  Brian Vickers         Toyota      364
26.  J.J. Yeley            Toyota      364
27.  A.J. Allmendinger     Toyota      363
28.  Michael McDowell      Toyota      363
29.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet   362
30.  Bill Elliott          Ford        362
31.  Joe Nemechek          Chevrolet   362
32.  Reed Sorenson         Dodge       361
33.  Robby Gordon          Dodge       360
34.  Sterling Marlin       Dodge       349
35.  Casey Mears           Chevrolet   340
36.  Paul Menard           Chevrolet   339
37.  Ryan Newman           Dodge       294
38.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge       269
39.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet   264
40.  Patrick Carpentier    Dodge       262
41.  Kyle Petty            Dodge       249
42.  Elliott Sadler        Dodge       246
43.  Greg Biffle           Ford        234