Martin tames Darlington; second win in four races

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- In a Hendrick Motorsports assault on Darlington Raceway, Mark Martin -- at 50 the senior member of the team -- won Saturday night's Southern 500 by 1.531 seconds over teammate Jimmie Johnson.

Attrition trimmed the field, and perseverance allowed Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon to rally from a lap down each to finish in the top five.

But it was a call by Martin's crew chief, Alan Gustafson, that gave the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet his second victory of the season and the 37th of his career -- tying him with Bobby Isaac for 17th on the all-time career wins list (watch video).

Martin and Johnson were two of seven drivers who stayed out on old tires under the 15th caution of the race on Lap 321, while Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr. and Gordon were the first three drivers out of the pits with fresh right-side tires.

Stewart charged through the field to finish third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, a car that gets engine, chassis and technical support from Hendrick. Stewart's teammate, Ryan Newman, ran fourth, followed by Gordon. Stewart moved past 16th-place finisher Kurt Busch into second in the Cup standings, 29 points behind Gordon.

Truex came home sixth, followed by Brad Keselowski in the No. 25 Chevy owned by Hendrick. Greg Biffle, rookie Joey Logano and pole-sitter Matt Kenseth completed the top 10.

"It's absolutely unbelievable," Martin said. "This is a big surprise. We had a strong car, but I never expected to win. Alan Gustafson is absolutely the best. I may have been his childhood hero, but I'm living a second childhood now -- and he's my childhood hero.

"We had a good enough car to do it, and pit strategy put us in a position to pull it off."

Ultimately, Martin had enough muscle to stave off Johnson's last-ditch attempts to pass him after the final restart on Lap 347 of 367 (watch video).

"He's Superman," Martin said of Johnson. "Three championships in a row. The guy's incredible. I thought he was trying to snooker me, lollygag back there and all of a sudden mash the gas, and I'd be off-guard. I was trying to save gas, but I couldn't let him get near me, because I know how tough he is."

Johnson, who gained two positions to fourth in the points, survived a series of calamities to claim the runner-up finish.

"I got trapped on pit road, I spun out trying to get to my pit stall, just a bunch of stuff -- man, it was a just chaotic night," Johnson said. "I'm very relieved and proud of the race team, because we kept our heads and fought through it all night long and got ourselves a good finish."

One by one, the slick surface knocked out the top contenders.

Kyle Busch, the defending race champ and last week's Richmond winner, saw his chance to repeat disappear when he slammed the wall on Lap 274 (watch video).

Not long after, Carl Edwards was tapped by teammate Greg Biffle, hit the wall and was hemmed in as the field moved around him. Edwards then was hit with a one-lap penalty after he drove right instead of left to make it into the pits (watch video).

Next came Biffle. Just like a year ago, he led the most laps (117) and looked to have the strongest car. While his 2008 race was ruined with a busted transmission, this time he hit the Turn 4 wall and missed out on his third Darlington victory in the past five races (watch video).

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season-long struggles continued. He hoped to break his winless career at Darlington and finally break through for his first victory in 11 months. And he got as high as second early on, but pitting after the race's 10th caution, one his tires escaped the pit box and Earnhardt was sent to the back of the field. Late in the race Junior spun and hit the wall after contact with Reed Sorenson (watch video).

Darlington also cost Clint Bowyer his string of 83 consecutive races running at the finish. Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger hit and Bowyer bounced off the outside wall before rolling across the track and crunching an inside wall (watch video). Bowyer quickly got out of his mangled machine, was evaluated at the infield care center and released a short time later.

Notes: Bowyer is the modern record holder for consecutive races running at the finish, but he stopped one short of Herman Bean's all-time record of 84, set from 1961-63. Bean set his mark while running limited schedules, not in consecutive events. ... This is Martin's second win at Darlington. His first came in the 1993 Southern 500.

Press Pass: Martin | Johnson | Stewart

The Associated Press contributed to this report.