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NOTES: The 61st running of the Showtime Southern 500 takes center stage this week on the hallowed grounds of Darlington Raceway, NASCAR's first superspeedway. Mark Martin is back to defend his title, as he won this race for the second time last year. It took 16 years, but Martin was able to defeat Jimmie Johnson for the coveted title. Starting 12th on the grid, Martin took the lead on lap 322 and held on the final 46 laps for the second of his five wins in 2009. Martin, who finished second on the points list last season, owns 40 career Sprint Cup titles. Greg Biffle led for a race-high 117 laps, but placed eighth, while pole sitter Matt Kenseth finished 10th. In 2008, Kyle Busch posted the third of his eight wins in 2008, as he raced to victory ahead of Carl Edwards. Busch dominated the race, leading 169 of the 367 laps to defeat Edwards by 3.115 seconds. Pole sitter Greg Biffle failed to finish the race due to engine problems and placed last. Jeff Gordon led only 22 laps, but it was the final 22 laps, as he clipped Denny Hamlin by less than a second for his 78th career Sprint Cup title in 2007. Gordon, who now totals 82 checkered flags, started from the 10th position on the grid and made his way to the top on lap 346, overtaking Jimmie Johnson. Hamlin dominated the race, leading five times for 179 laps, while Johnson, who placed third, led four times for 44 laps. Pole sitter Clint Bowyer led for the first 16 laps, but faded and placed ninth. Gordon is without a win this season and his winless streak has reached 39 races. Darlington bodes well for Gordon, as he has seven Sprint Cup titles at DR. In 2006, Greg Biffle became the first back-to-back winner of this race since Dale Jarrett in 1997-98, as he crossed the finish line 0.209 of a second ahead of Jeff Gordon. The win, the 10th of his Sprint Cup career, was the first of two 2006 victories. Biffle, who led seven times during the race for a total of 170 laps, reclaimed the advantage for the last time on lap 319 of the 367 lap race before an estimated crowd of 75,000. The race was filled with lead changes, 25 in all, among 10 drivers. Pole sitter Kasey Kahne led three times for 41 laps and placed 21st. Gordon has now posted seven wins at Darlington Raceway and has finished in the top-10 20 times in 29 races. In fact, Gordon has placed in the top five in each of the last six Darlington races. Gordon's average finish at Darlington is 11.2 and has led a series high 1,610 laps. Darlington Raceway is celebrating its 61st year of racing. The track was originally built as a 1.25-mile paved superspeedway in 1949-50 and hosted the first 500-mile race in NASCAR history on asphalt. The track was re-measured to 1.375-mile in 1953 and then re-configured to 1.366 in the spring of 1970. The track has been re-paved in 1995 and then again in 2007. There have been 105 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Darlington Raceway since the track opened. Not only is Darlington the site of the oldest NASCAR race on asphalt, it is also the site of one of the closest race finishes in NASCAR history. Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch by 0.002 seconds on March 16, 2003 - the closest margin of victory since NASCAR instituted electronic timing in mid-1993. This and That at Darlington: The deepest in the field that a race winner has started at Darlington was 43rd, in the track's inaugural race in 1950 by Johnny Mantz. That race had a 75-car field. 18 races at Darlington have been won from the pole, the most productive starting position. Hendrick Motorsports has won 12 races at Darlington, more than any other organization. David Pearson leads all drivers with 10 victories, followed by Dale Earnhardt with nine. Pearson leads all drivers with 12 poles at Darlington. The pole sitter has won at Darlington 19 times, while the top five positions have yielded 67 wins. There are only three current race tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit in which Tony Stewart has never won, and that includes Darlington. Stewart owns an abysmal, 0-for-17 mark at Darlington. His best finish was last year, when he placed third. Stewart has won at 19 of the 23 tracks he has raced on, and he didn't win at Rockingham, which is no longer active for Cup racing. The 2010 Sprint Cup Series season continues with the May 16th running of the Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway. Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner. 05/05 14:49:40 ET