DARLINGTON, S.C -- Carl Edwards loved Darlington Raceway. Then he hated it. Now he loves it again.

A runner-up finish on one of the toughest tracks in NASCAR will do that. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was slowest in practice when the recently-resurfaced racetrack opened to the Sprint Cup circuit on Thursday, and qualified a distant 36th for Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 300. But he warmed to the new surface over the course of the main event, where he placed second to Kyle Busch.

“

Tonight was tough, but it wasn't the toughest Darlington I've ever driven, just because you really couldn't get up to a guy to pass him.

”

JEFF GORDON

"We were 43rd on the sheet when we came here first practice. I was down in the dumps," Edwards said. "I was feeling terrible. I didn't like the new surface, and I was frustrated. To come out of here with a second-place finish ... I mean, Kyle had the fastest car. He was pretty unbeatable tonight. To finish second, beat the rest of the field, that's pretty good from where we came from. I'm very proud of my guys for rebounding on pit road. They did a great job. I'm not so frustrated with the surface anymore. I was terrible on Thursday."

Terrible wasn't the word. He sounded almost despondent after first practice Thursday, lamenting the fact that his favorite track had been irreversibly altered. The feeling carried over to Friday, and his sub-par qualifying effort. "I felt like wearing black today," he said then. "I felt like we were going to have to have a funeral, because we killed my favorite racetrack."

Saturday night, on the heels of his fifth top-five finish of the season, his opinion had changed considerably.

"Yeah, I like this track," he said. "And the reason I like it is because it seems like the driver can make a pretty big difference. I was a little nervous about the surface, because I felt like they took a little bit of it away. I still felt you could make things happen out there. I think with some age, it will be just the same. You know, it's still my favorite racetrack. I'm really excited about getting a little age on the surface, though, because it was great before they put the surface on. I hope it gets there."

As expected, the new surface extended tire wear to unprecedented levels. On a 126-lap green flag run early in the race, the field went through only two pit cycles, with cars staying out on old tires for 60 laps at a stretch without sacrificing much grip. The average speed of 140.350 mph was a record, surpassing the 139.958 set during Dale Earnhardt's victory in the spring of 1993. But track position was still crucial on the narrow, 1.366-mile layout.

"Tonight was tough, but it wasn't the toughest Darlington I've ever driven, just because you really couldn't get up to a guy to pass him," said third-place finisher Jeff Gordon. "You know, a lapped car had to let me go in order for me to pass him. I don't know, maybe the other guys were a little better than that. I was able to keep my car [along] the wall all night. That's just what I focused on doing all night, just trying not to get in the wall."

The crash-fest some predicted didn't happen, as the night saw only eight cautions. "It was just like the old Darlington," said Jamie McMurray, who finished 11th. "You had to drive around the track the same, and you had to race guys the same way. You couldn't race people, you had to just race the track. So even though it was fast, it was still the same old Darlington."

The old Darlington will come back soon enough, given the sandy soil and hot, breezy conditions that so often exist in this part of the world. After the track's last repaving in 1995, it took only about three years for the abrasive quality of the pavement to return. Of course, Darlington had two races a year then, and only one now. Edwards has an idea that might speed up the process.

"I was thinking, boy, they should invite people from all over South Carolina to come and drive on this racetrack all year round, every day they want, to try and get this surface wore out a little bit," he said. "I think it would be a great promotion and definitely get this thing to where it wears out tires. That was the one part missing a little bit. Track position seemed to be important, but before it seemed like tires were huge. But I was impressed with everyone. I thought Thursday this was going to be a disaster. And it was for me yesterday. But today went pretty well."