Plenty of history could be made at Darlington

The old master will be everywhere this weekend at Darlington Raceway, a fitting prospect given that the one race so connected to him will be making its return. A monument to Cale Yarborough, a native of nearby Timmonsville, S.C., who won the Southern 500 five times, has been added outside the frontstretch grandstand. Saturday night before the revived classic goes green once again, it will be Yarborough leading the field over that one-year-old blacktop, behind the wheel of the pace car.

Literally and figuratively, Jeff Gordon will be right behind him.

At Darlington, a place where the walls alone can tell six decades' worth of stories of triumph and tragedy, the Southern 500 is coming back with a bang. One of NASCAR's most revered race names -- "the Kentucky Derby and the Masters of our sport," according to series VP and former raceway president Jim Hunter -- returns with the opportunity to make more history of the kind for which the 60-year-old facility is famous.

And how appropriate that the players this time around are drivers tightly bound not just to the race track, but the event itself -- a race missing from the Cup schedule since 2004, after which Darlington was cut down to one race. Gordon enters Darlington tied with Yarborough with five Southern 500 victories, the most ever in one of racing's more iconic events. He also has 82 career victories on NASCAR's top level, one shy of the old South Carolina legend, and with a good Saturday night can catch Yarborough in one statistical category and surpass him in another.

"I was able to spend some time with Cale a few years back at an event at the track," said Gordon, who has seven total career victories at Darlington, the most recent in 2007. "It was neat to hear him tell stories about racing here during that era. The cars have changed, the speeds have changed and the asphalt has changed, but I don't believe the driver's thinking has changed one bit. You race the track here, not the other competitors."

How good are Gordon's chances Saturday night? Consider that the four-time champion has finished no worse than third in each of his last five starts at Darlington. That streak includes his victory in 2007, where steam was belching out of his No. 24 car over the final laps, but the engine inside hung on. This time, Gordon is driving the same car he used to finish second at Fontana and sixth at Las Vegas earlier this year.

If Gordon ties Yarborough, next up are Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, whom the NASCAR record books have tied for third on the all-time victory list with 84 wins apiece.

"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."