The frustration had been mounting for Kevin Harvick since he won the second race of the season.
But Harvick, who had endured a series of mishaps and poor finishes in the past five weeks, took out those frustrations on the field Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, dominating the Bojangles Southern 500 and then winning a late dash to the checkered flag for his second win of the season. Harvick became the first two-race winner of the season, snapping a streak of seven different winners to start the season and gaining an advantage in the new Chase for the Sprint Cup format.
Harvick dominated the race, but came out of the pits fifth during a late caution period. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and others took just two tires while Harvick took four, setting up a dramatic finish.
But Harvick blew past Earnhardt on the second of two green-white-checkered restarts to regain the lead and take the victory. Earnhardt finished second, followed by Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon.
Since winning at Phoenix in just his second race with Stewart-Haas Racing, Harvick had encountered nothing but trouble. He finished 41st, 39th and 36th in the next three races. Then, after a seventh-place run at Martinsville, he blew an engine and finished 42nd last week at Texas.
Harvick and his team rallied in a big way at Darlington, however, winning the pole and dominating the race.
“We had to overcome a lot the last few weeks but had really good cars," Harvick told Fox in victory lane. "We just kept our heads down and did what we had to do."
But it looked like this one might slip away when a caution came out for Joey Logano's smoking car with 10 laps to go.
Johnson took the lead on pit road and then darted away from the field on the restart with five laps to go while Harvick had to work his way past Gordon and Kenseth. Harvick was closing on Earnhardt for second when he got a big break when Travis Kvapil hit the wall with just three laps remaining, bringing out another caution flag and setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
Earnhardt beat Johnson on the next restart when Johnson elected to start in the outside lane, getting a push from Harvick to take the lead. Earnhardt, who won the season-opening Daytona 500, was heading for the white flag when Clint Bowyer ran into the back of Kurt Busch, causing Busch to spin and bring out another caution flag.
On the final restart, Johnson pushed Earnhardt into the lead, but Harvick took off after him and blew past Earnhardt in turns 3 and 4 with one lap remaining.
“I needed those green-white-checkered (restarts)," Harvick said. "The last one is the one I needed the most, just for the fact that I was able to get really good restarts and able to time the restarts really well and those guys had older tires and were spinning their tires.
“I knew if I could make it through 1 and 2 and get close to the 88 (of Earnhardt), I knew I had the top line down there and he had the bottom. So it was a good night. This is the Southern 500!”
The 25th win of Harvick's career gives him victories in the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 — NASCAR four biggest races.
Earnhardt knew he couldn't hold off Harvick on the final restart.
"He had the best car and the best tires," Earnhardt said. "I wasn’t looking in the mirror and I really couldn’t tell where anyone was, but (my spotter) just said he was coming. I might should have run the top there in 3 and 4 coming to the white and made him run the bottom to get by us."
Earnhardt also redeemed himself a bit after running through the grass and wrecking last week at Texas and finishing 43rd.
"We had a great car," he said. "That's the best finish I've ever had here."
Johnson, who rallied after struggling early in the race, might have made a mistake by starting in the outside lane on the final restart.
“The guys on the radio said the outside was the the place to be," he said. "I hadn’t seen the front all night long, and then I was talking to Junior when I got out of the car and he said that was a bad move. … If it had stayed green (after the first restart), we were in great shape."
Kurt Busch was headed for a top-10 finish until Bowyer got into him after the first green-white-checkered restart. An angry Busch walked out onto the track under caution as if he were looking for Bowyer. The two did not have any sort of confrontation after the race.
Gordon ran second to Harvick most of the race, but faded to seventh after taking two tires late in the race. He still leads the points standings, however, holding a one-point lead over Kenseth, followed by Carl Edwards, Earnhardt, Johnson and Kyle Busch.
Harvick is 22nd in points but holds a big advantage in the race to make the Chase with his second win of the year. Two victories practically guarantee Harvick a Chase spot if he remains in the top 30 in points after 26 races. Other winners this year include Earnhardt, Edwards, Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kurt and Kyle Busch.
Harvick dominated most of the race, leading 238 of 374 laps. Logano, who won last week at Texas, led 37 laps early but lost the handle on his car and finished 35th with a late brake problem.
More than a dozen drivers slapped the wall at Darlington, including Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Kasey Kahne. Busch survived mutliple impacts with the wall to finish sixth, while Kahne and Menard did not, tearing up their cars and finishing 37th and 41st, respectively.
Rookies Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon continued to impress, with Larson finishing eighth and Dillon 11th. Danica Patrick finished 22nd.
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