Former champs searching to tame famed Darlington

It's back -- the Southern 500 returns to Darlington Raceway on Saturday night, and while the famed race name returns one thing remains constant: The track will live up to its reputation. Again.

• Cup Series tickets
• Nationwide Series tickets
• Book your travel

This weekend marks the 106th Cup Series race at the Lady in Black, but the first "Southern 500" since Nov. 14, 2004, when Jimmie Johnson beat Mark Martin by .959 seconds.

And to further drive home the "more things change the more they stay the same," of the 43 drivers who took the green flag for the last Southern 500, little more than a handful remain with the same team (chart at right).

Among those drivers who have moved on in the past five years, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. Busch joined Penske Racing before the 2006 season and Smoke is in his first year as an owner-driver with Stewart-Haas Racing. With four top-five finishes and seven top-10s through 10 races, Stewart continues to make tracks toward Victory Lane, while Busch already has one victory this year to match his 2008 total.

Both drivers are chasing points leader Jeff Gordon, who tops all active drivers with seven victories at Darlington -- five of which came during a seven-race stretch between Sept. 3, 1995, and Sept. 6, 1998.

Busch has the dubious distinction of finishing second in the closest finish in the history of NASCAR's electronic scoring and timing. Ricky Craven beat Busch by 0.002 seconds on March 16, 2003, a finish that was voted by fans as the most memorable moment at the track "Too Tough to Tame."

"Sure, I think about that race and the way it turned out every time we return to Darlington," Busch said, "and I'm sure it'll be the same situation when we go back there this weekend.

"How can you ever forget a finish like that? I'd certainly say the exact same thing even if I was not personally involved."

Stewart hasn't dealt with the close-but-no-cigar finish at Darlington -- his best finish is fourth on two occasions (though he does have a Nationwide Series victory) -- but he is close to becoming the first owner-driver to win a race since Ricky Rudd on Sept. 27, 1998, at Martinsville; Smoke has finished as the runner-up in two of the past three Cup Series races.

"If you can say you won a race at Darlington -- that's a feather in your cap," Stewart said. "That's something to be proud of, knowing that you're in a group of drivers with names like [David] Pearson and [Richard] Petty -- the pioneers of our sport who you hear stories about the races they ran there and the races they won there.

"Darlington is such a tough track to get a handle on and to be good at all day. You don't see a lot of guys who have a lot of success there," he added. "You see only a handful of guys who religiously run well there. That just shows you how difficult Darlington is to get a handle on. If you can have a good day and win there, it's a track that's like winning at Bristol. It's the same type of feeling -- knowing that you conquered something that's very hard to obtain."

Of the 45 drivers on the entry list for the Southern 500, only eight have been to Victory Lane at Darlington in a Cup Series race.

"The goal remains the same as it was from the very first time I ever raced at Darlington," said Busch, who competed for the first time at Darlington on March 18, 2001. "Regardless of all the factors involved, the goal and strategy is the same as it ever was. It really is true that you race the track first and don't worry about the competition until the later stages of the race.

"I really want to finally beat that old track," he added. "With all the history there and with the return to the race being known as the Southern 500, it would be special, that's for sure. It would certainly be a treasured addition to get my 20th career Cup win at Darlington this weekend and have a trophy to prove we finally did come out of there on top."

Darlington Raceway, which is celebrating its 60th year, is one of three tracks where Stewart had yet to win a Cup race, including Fontana and Las Vegas (he also failed to win a race in 11 starts at Rockingham).

"You think back to guys like David Pearson who were so good [at Darlington] ... this series is just so deep in history, and this is one of those tracks where the history goes as deep as NASCAR does.

"As much as [open-wheel drivers] know about the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I think people underestimate how much we know about Darlington and the history of that track, and how hard it is to win races there. I guess that's why a Sprint Cup win at Darlington is something that's really important to me."