Starting in 1950, the traditional Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway was held every Labor Day weekend. In 2004, the race was moved to the penultimate race of the season during the first year of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship playoffs before it was eventually moved to the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, where the Southern 500 name was brought back starting in 2009. Last year, the event was temporarily moved to mid-April.
But starting this weekend, the Bojangles Southern 500 will return to its rightful and traditional spot on the calendar, as Sunday night’s Sprint Cup Series race will return to Darlington, South Carolina for Labor Day weekend.
Kyle Busch and his primary backer M&M’S Crispy know plenty about making a comeback. Busch returned to NASCAR’s top series after missing the first 11 races because of injury and mounted an impressive run to make the playoffs in the 13 races he’s run since. In total, he’s scored four wins, five top-five finishes and seven top-10s and finds himself ever so close to being locked into this year’s Chase with just two races left in NASCAR’s regular season. As for M&M’S Crispy, the brand also returned by popular demand this year after a 10-year hiatus. The two will work to conquer the tricky 1.33-mile egg-shaped Darlington oval, as everyone knows how difficult it is to win the grueling 367-lap race.
The driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Crispy Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has conquered Darlington before, having brought home a big win at “The Track Too Tough ToTame” in May 2008. His first victory at Darlington earned him the distinction of being the youngest Sprint Cup winner – at 23 years of age – in the storied history of Darlington. Busch also has one Xfinity Series win at Darlington, scoring that one in May 2011.
Even better news for the Las Vegas Native is that NASCAR is bringing back the low-downforce package which Busch and the M&M’S Crispy team used to bring home the victory at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta this past July.
So, as Busch returns to “The Lady in Black” to compete in the first Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend since 2003, he’ll hope turning back the clock will be just what he and the M&M’S Crispy team needs in order to rekindle the magic of his 2008 win there.
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