Denny Hamlin became the first driver in 17 years to tame Darlington Raceway since Mark Martin in 1993 after winning both Nationwide and Sprint Cup races during the NASCAR weekend. Southern's 500 victory was Hamlin’s 11th of his career and third of the 2010 season, tying him with Jimmie Johnson for most wins this season in the Cup Series so far."You can't put this in words. Just an unbelievable night. Pit road did a phenomenal job getting me back on the track first, and that's what led to this win. We went back and forth all night and fine-tuned it to perfection at the end. Right there at the end, it was the best it's been all night. That's all you can ask for."
By the beginning of the race Jeff Gordon demonstrated his winning desire taking the lead from pole-sitter Jamie McMurray on the opening lap and quickly began to pull away from the field. But during the race he was competed hard with Brian Vickers, Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kyle and Kurt Busch.
Jimmie Johnson had a miserable race with lot of contacts and problems. after a contact with Truex Jr. he fell a lap down but earned the free pass, and had his damaged right fender replaced over a series of pit stops and he restarted in 22nd, the final car on the lead lap. Still on lap 181 he was collided hard with AJ Allmendinger in Turn 3, as the Richard Petty Motorsports Ford lost its brakes and AJ slid up the track and hard into the No. 48. That was JJ's 3rd DNF of the season who finished in a season-worst 36th.
Allmendinger said he had been suffering brake problems over the last few weeks and was "out of brakes" when he slid up into the No. 48 car.
"The brake rotor exploded. The last 40 or 50 laps we were struggling with brake problems and just no brakes. We took all the brake cooling off and thought maybe we were going to fix it, and when that yellow came out I went to hit the brakes to slow down and the brake rotors exploded. I'm not sure which one, but I was just trying to aim for the bottom and try to miss everybody. I'm sorry to Jimmie. It wasn't his fault, but I had no brakes and couldn't do anything about it."
Both drivers were examined at the infield care center as a precaution and released later. Johnson commented:
"I didn't see where he came from. All I know is that at the last minute, I saw a green bumper and it was a hard hit. Unfortunately we had all kinds of issues tonight ... but still had a very fast race car, and I think we could have salvaged a top 10, top five today. I'm going to go back and watch the video, because I have no clue. I guess it was A.J., because he came and apologized to me and said his brakes failed or something. I don't know if he was behind me or where he was, but he came in behind me and hit me hard."
Denny Hamlin led 104 of the 367 laps, but during the closing laps of the race he already knew that he had to contend with both Gordon and Burton for the victory. However, mistakes from his contenders during the final pit stops proved crucial for the race outcome.
Gordon planned to make his last pitstop first under green, but had to abort the effort at the very last second to avoid a collision with the cars closing quickly behind him missing the pit entry and when he finally entered pit road a lap later, a spin by David Reutimann brought out the last caution of the race and Gordon had to hustle back onto the track to avoid losing a lap.
"When we were ready to come in and pit a little early, I just didn't signal the guys behind me in time and I was going to get run over. My fault. I don't like making mistakes like that."
Due to Reutimann's caution, the leading field headed to pit road under yellow but Burton, who had traded the lead with Hamlin right before the caution, came out in third. However, NASCAR stewards flagged him for running over his air hose, and Burton had to return to the pits for a penalty, losing a ton of track position.
Hamlin restarted in first with 20 laps to go, while Gordon was 12th and Burton 13th.
after making a terrific restart in his Toyota over teammate Kyle Busch, he was pulled away from the rest of the field and sailed to his third victory of this season.
Pole-sitter Jamie McMurray, finished second in the No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and third it was Kurt Busch’s No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge. Gordon came back from the late-race error to finish fourth, while Juan Montoya, McMurray's teammate, rounded out the top five.
Kyle Busch was seventh, Burton rebounded to finish eighth, Ryan Newman, was night and finally Brian Vickers rounded out the top 10
