What Went Down: Darlington
In case you missed it, here are the five biggest headlines from the weekend in the world of NASCAR:
1. Kyle Busch shrugs off boos with a win: If there was any doubt who is NASCAR's hottest driver, Kyle Busch silenced them with a resounding victory Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, winning his third race of the season.
What has to have the rest of the Cup garage shaking their heads isn't just that Busch won again but how he's winning. No one even challenged him in the closing laps of the race. Busch won in Tiger Woods fashion, meaning everyone else was racing for second.
2. Darlington is back: After losing its traditional Labor Day race and handed the dreaded Mother's Day weekend, Darlington Raceway seemed set up to fail. But the opposite has happened. Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 was the fourth-straight sellout; Darlington is cool again; and racing in South Carolina isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
3. Junior's streaks continue: On the positive side, Dale Earnhardt Jr. led a lap for the six straight race, scored his series high eighth top-10 finish (he wound up fourth at Darlington) and remains third in the points standings. That said, his winless streak is now at 73 races and counting.
4. Rowdy gets into it, again: In what's becoming a weekly reality show, Busch had another tangle on the track that he wasn't too thrilled about. This time it was Brad Keselowski who got in his way during Friday night's Nationwide race, sending Busch into the wall.
Afterward, Busch was none too thrilled with Keselowski, who just so happens to drive for one Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Busch blamed the incident on "racing idiots" and promised to return the favor in the future.
5. Ragan's arrival: While Roush Racing's Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray continue to languish in the standings, second-year driver David Ragan has quietly moved into the top 12 in the standings.
Ragan finished fifth at Darlington, his second top-five finish in three races, and is starting to get people to notice the driver who inhabits stall No. 5 in the Roush stable.
"We're getting this deal somewhat figured out," he said. "We've had some good race cars, we just have to fine tune a little bit to try and win one of these things."
