From Kyle Busch's emotional meeting with former Busch Series champion Sam Ard and his wife to the news of the suspensions of Jeremy Mayfield and two other crew members for violation of NASCAR's substance abuse policy, it already had been a memorable weekend at Darlington Raceway before the Southern 500's return brought a record 17 cautions and a Mark Martin victory.

Two hours before the start of the race, the sport was rocked with the news of Mayfield, the first Cup Series driver to be suspended under NASCAR's random drug-testing policy.

"I think it's very unfortunate for Jeremy, but it's going to send a big message through this garage area to make sure we are treating this sport as professionally as it deserves to be," Jeff Gordon said. "There are too many guys out there and you know somebody is going to make a mistake. We've heard of other instances outside of the Cup Series. I think it's just very unfortunate for the sport, for Jeremy, for everybody.

"It definitely puts a black eye on it. We'll take the blows and move on."

Busch invited the Ards to the Southern 500 drivers' meeting where he received applause from the NASCAR racers. And Busch received a big hug from Jo Ard, Sam's wife of 48 years.

Ard, who won consecutive titles in 1983 and '84 in what is now the Nationwide Series, has Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Busch donated $100,000 to help the family last year after becoming historically interwined with Ard after tying his '83 record of 10 series wins in a season.

"Thank you so much," said Jo, as her 69-year-old husband sat quietly in his wheelchair for most of the 15-minute visit. "Hospital bills were eating us up. You can't believe how much he's helped us."

"You go sit in that car. It's not fun."
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr., on racing at Darlington (watch video)

"Here we are again, both of us in the top five."
-- Ryan Newman, after finishing fourth to Tony Stewart's third for Stewart-Haas Racing

"The last 100 laps out there were about as wild as it gets. It was survival of the fittest. Guys running in the top-10 were spinning and hitting the wall."
-- Kurt Busch, who battled an ill-handling car, spun out and finished 16th (watch video)

"It felt good having a car capable of winning again. We made a lot of gains throughout the weekend, from setup to overall information on performance. We just ran into some bad luck there in the later stages of the race."
-- Kasey Kahne, who led 45 laps but finished 23rd and suffering front-end damage in a fender-bender (watch video)

"Greg just got into my left rear and put me in the fence there. ... I guess that stuff happens. It's too bad that happened.
-- Carl Edwards, who finished 32nd after contact with Greg Biffle

"Maybe I bumped him, but I really don't think so. He cut down the hill. He knew I was inside of him and that happens, but I think just the air off my bumper got him loose."
-- Biffle, on the contact with Edwards (watch video)

• Mark Martin won for the second time at Darlington (1993 Southern 500) and for the 37th time in his career.

• The previous record for cautions at Darlington was 15 set in a 400-mile race in 1995.

• Jimmie Johnson (second) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 11 races at Darlington.

• Tony Stewart (third) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 17 races at Darlington.

• Joey Logano equalled his career-best finish (ninth) set three races ago at Talladega.

• Clint Bowyer had his modern-era streak of 83 races without a DNF end when he bounced off the wall multiple times in one accident (watch video). He fell short of the all-time record by one race.

The Associated Press contributed to his report.