Plenty of history could be made at Darlington (cont'd)

"It's cool to be mentioned in the same sentence as guys like Cale, Bobby and Darrell, and it's something I'll look back on at the end of my career," said Gordon, who currently leads the standings by 10 points over Kurt Busch. "But we arrive at the race track each weekend focused on trying to win, not on catching or passing people on a list. Our real motivation is winning the championship, and we hope we can win races as we work toward that goal."

Darlington Results

Gordon/Busch (since 2005)

Year	Gordon*	Busch
2005	2	23
2006	2	7
2007	1	37
2008	3	1

* Finished third in most recent Southern 500 in 2004

Of course, Gordon isn't the only driver with a little piece of history at stake Saturday. While he's chasing Yarborough, Kyle Busch will be chasing Gordon. Darlington's defending champion won last weekend at Richmond to become only the second driver -- along with Gordon -- to amass 15 wins on NASCAR's premiere series before his 25th birthday. The younger Busch, who turned 24 last weekend, is also vying for a weekend sweep to match the one he recorded last week in the Virginia capital. That hasn't happened at Darlington since 1993, when Mark Martin won both races.

And for Busch, it's personal. His crew chiefs in both circuits hail from South Carolina -- Steve Addington on the Sprint Cup side is from Spartanburg, while Jason Ratcliff on the Nationwide car is from Sumter. He'd love to give them each a little piece of home to take back to team headquarters in Huntersville, N.C.

"Coming up with Darlington this weekend, they're both from down there," Busch said. "You know, I like Darlington as a race track. I think it's a little easier for me to drive now with the fresh pavement than on the old pavement. For whatever reason I wasn't that great at the old stuff.

"This time going around there is going to be the second year on the new asphalt. So it should still be pretty grippy. And I'm looking forward to it. I think Denny [Hamlin] had the tire test out there, so we'll talk to him and get some of his feedback on what he learned. But I'm looking forward to going back there and winning a race for Steve Addington, and Jason Ratcliff, his home state. So, hopefully, if we don't get two, we get at least one. I'd really like to win the Nationwide race there, that would be cool."

Addington experienced winning in his home state last year, during a victory after which Busch unveiled his trademark bow.

"It was big," Addington remembered. "Anytime you win in your home state, it's special. It was like winning in Vegas for Kyle. It's been a place I always wanted to win. When I was a crew chief in the Nationwide Series, we would finish behind the Roush cars too many times. To finally get that win last year in the Cup Series was really exciting. It's just a neat deal to win a race so close to home."