The tradition of NASCAR racing at Darlington on Labor Day weekend came back this year. Carl Edwards came back from two laps down to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

The 43 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers lined up Sunday (9/6) with what they asked for … lower down force built in their cars and softer tires on them. That put more of the demand on the drivers to drive the cars properly of have the track called “The Lady In Black” give them their “Darlington Stripe” or worse.

Many of the drivers did earn that special scrape down the side of their car for getting out next to the wall and making a minor mistake. Some of the drivers got more than the “Darlington Stripe” for making more than a minor mistake. The challenge of the lower down force package and softer tires led to a record number on caution periods at Darlington. The yellow flag flew a total of 18 times with the field following the pace car for 89 laps of the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Carl Edwards made a mistake that did not damage his car, but it did result in him going two laps down to the leader. While Carl worked hard to get his lost laps back, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski appeared to be the cars to beat with Denny leading the most laps in the race for a total of 57 laps of the 367 lap race.

Late in the race Carl Edwards had gotten back on the lead lap of the race. The record-setting 18th caution flag flew on lap 355 sending the drivers to pit row for new tires for the final sprint to the finish. The pit drew for the #19 Toyota got Carl out of the pits in the lead position.

Carl was able to hold that lead for the final ten laps of the race to capture his 25th Sprint Cup career win, second win of the 2015 NASCAR season and first win at Darlington Raceway. The win continues the recent domination for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) as the organization has now won seven of the last 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup races. The win also marked Toyota’s 75th win in the series.

Brad Keselowski grabbed the second place finish with Denny Hamlin finishing the race in third place. Joey Logano (4th) and Kevin Harvick (5th) rounded out the top five. See the complete race results for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darling Raceway here.

The 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers that were on the Chase Grid heading into the race at Darlington remain on the Chase Grid following the Bojangles’ Southern 500. There is some shifting in the seeding order and Kyle Busch has now clinched his spot on the Chase Grid by earning enough points to guarantee a regular season finish inside the top 30 in the point standings had scoring four wins since his return to racing. See the Chase Grid following the weekend at Darlington here.

With just one race left before the Chase Grid is set some of the drivers on the Chase Grid without a win can control their own Chase destiny and some of the drivers just under the cutoff line for the Chase Grid need some help to get on the grid. I will give you a look at those scenarios in my pre-race blog in a couple of days.

The final chance to get in the Chase or gain bonus points for the start of NASCAR’s playoffs will come Saturday night, September 12th at Richmond International Raceway in the Federated Auto Parts 400. It will be the 26th and final regular season race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

By: Buck Stevens