NASCAR Cup Series

Checkered Countdown: Top-Five Darlington Finishes

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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We have a huge variety of different tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule, all with their own peculiarities and history. With our Checkered Countdown series we try to bring you the best finishes ever at each venue to get you warmed up for the upcoming race.

After wrapping up the race weekend at the super fast Michigan International Speedway, we move on to the historic Darlington Raceway. With the first race held back in 1950 this track has unique peculiarities: turns one and two have different configurations from turns three and four. This makes it difficult for the teams to find the right setup for their car and forces the drivers to run particular lines very close to the outside walls, pushing their limits. Since 2005 the second date that Darlington had on the schedule has been cancelled, leaving the Southern 500 as the only race run there. David Pearson has the most ever wins on this track with ten.

Buckle your seatbelts, here we go with our top-five.

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No. 5 Jeff Gordon wins the battle against Jeff Burton to go to victory lane (1997).

In the 1997 Southern 500 multiple mistakes in the pits kept shuffling Jeff Burton back in the field. In the final part of the race this helped Jeff Gordon get into the lead in front of Dale Jarrett. Burton was not giving up though and quickly regained ground on the leaders. With three laps to go he got by second-place driver Jarrett and started closing on Gordon. At the beginning of the final lap the two were already side-by-side for the lead and banging off of each other. Burton had the inside lane, not the preferred line at Darlington, and had to lift going into turn one to not get into the wall.

This allowed Gordon to get back up front and win the race by a mere 0.2 seconds. This was the third of four straight Southern 500 wins for Gordon, and it also allowed him to win the famous Winston Million, the prize given to the winner of at least three of the four most famous races on the schedule: the Daytona 500, the Winston 500 at Talladega, the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500. Gordon won all of them but the Winston 500.

No. 4 Sudden rain causes series of wrecks; Jeff Burton wins under caution with damage and a tire down (1999).

In 1999 Jeff Burton won the 400-miler at Darlington in a weird way. Just after halfway through the race he was in the lead. While approaching a big pack of lapped cars a sudden downpour hit the racetrack surprising the drivers. Ernie Irvan immediately spun out and Ricky Craven while trying to dodge him crashed along with Kenny Irwin Jr. Jerry Nadeau who was about to be lapped by Burton lost control too and the leader made contact with him and the wall.

The caution immediately came out but it soon appeared that Burton had sustained a lot of damage. His crew chief told him to stay out hoping that the rain would keep falling forcing NASCAR to call the race. Burton would not have been able to run much more caution laps with all that damage, but the race was eventually stopped and he won in a very peculiar way.

No. 3 Darrell Waltrip wins incredible battle against Richard Petty (1979).

The 1979 Rebel 500 was decided by a hard-fought battle between the legends Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty. The two drivers put on a great show made of continuous passing and lead changes. Petty looked to be the favourite since he could easily get back in front of Waltrip when passed. But when the white flag flew the two were still very close to each other with Donnie Allison in third place.

Waltrip made the move in turn one and passed the King, but lost the lead again on the backstretch. Then he made his masterpiece move: he lifted earlier than Petty who was on his inside, and made a perfect crossover move after being cleared by the #43 car. That move gave him the lead and the win, while Allison and Petty fought for second place. In the video you can hear Formula 1 legend Jackie Stewart calling the race.

No. 2 The leaders crash, Terry Labonte takes advantage of it to win in a photo finish (1980).

In the final laps of the 1980 Southern 500 the battle for the win was between Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson and Benny Parsons. Sophomore driver Terry Labonte was further back. The three leaders kept fighting and swapping position until oil left on the track by a car with engine issues sent all three of the leaders into the turn one wall with two laps to go. Pearson was the only one able to slowly keep going with a damaged car.

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The caution flew but the rules said that the field would have to race back to the finish line to be scored. An odd race between the damaged car of Pearson and the far back car of Labonte emerged, with the leader trying to block his competitor to get to the finish line first. Labonte though was able to get alongside of Pearson and eventually crossed the stripe first, taking the yellow and the white flags. The only lap he led in the day of his first win was the last one under caution.

One of the most famous finishes in NASCAR history took place at Darlington. Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch were engaged in a hard battle for the win. The lead kept changing hands between the two drivers. With two laps to go Craven tried a pass on the inside of Busch but they both slid up the track and into the wall. Busch performed a crossover move, got the lead back and kept it until the final corner of the race. By then Craven had caught him back and moved to the inside preparing the drag race to the line. They touched multiple times trying to slow each other down and eventually both of them crossed the line spinning out. Craven was declared the winner by just 0.002 seconds.

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