DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) – Greg Biffle needed overtime to grab another victory.

The Roush Racing driver fell behind on a late pit stop, but got one last chance when Mark Martin spun, bringing out the 12th caution flag of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Darlington Raceway just five laps from the scheduled finish.

Ryan Newman, who had taken charge late in the race, chose to stay on the track while Biffle and several other contenders pitted for tires.

When the green flag waved again for a two-lap shootout, beginning on lap 369, Biffle, taking advantage of those fresh tires, charged from fourth. He passed Carl Edwards, Ken Schrader and, finally, Newman before taking the white flag for the last lap.

Biffle went on to win easily, adding the Dodge Charger 500 to victories earlier this season in California and Texas. Biffle’s No. 16 Ford led 176 of the 370 laps, beating the Chevrolet of runner-up Jeff Gordon, a six-time Darlington winner, to the finish by 0.989 seconds – about six car-lengths.

“I feel bad for Ryan Newman,” Biffle said. “He had a real strong car tonight. But this is really special.”

Biffle fended off a series of challenges from Newman, second-year driver Kasey Kahne, Gordon and series points leader Jimmie Johnson, who had won the two previous races at the South Carolina track.

The 35-year-old driver from Vancouver, Wash., gave team owner Jack Roush his fifth victory in the first 10 races of the season. Defending series champion Kurt Busch and Edwards have each won one race for Roush in 2005.

Kahne, who started from the pole and led 60 laps, finished third, followed by Martin, Newman, Jamie McMurray and Johnson, who charged back after making an unscheduled pit stop on lap 260 and falling to 23rd, a lap off the pace.

Despite dominating the race, it looked as though Biffle was going to wind up an also ran when Newman, who had been watching the battles up front most of the night, shot past into the lead on lap 323 and pulled away to leads of more than 3 seconds.

Newman, who has not won since last September at Dover, was out front by about 30 car-lengths and seemingly on the way to an easy victory when Martin, running in fifth, spun on lap 363, bringing out the yellow flag and setting up Biffle’s sixth career win.

“Man, I wish we could have beat Biffle out on that last stop,” Gordon said. “The first guy on four fresh tires was going to win it.”

Gordon moved into second place in the season standings, 127 points behind Johnson.

It was a very successful night for the track that lost one of its two Cup races this season and has been rumored to be in danger of also losing this event as part of NASCAR’s continuing expansion to new tracks in nontraditional parts of the country.

Faster track

Jimmie Johnson has won three of the last four NASCAR Nextel Cup races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but it’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon who stole the spotlight this week during testing at the Concord, N.C., track.

Gordon, himself a four-time winner at the suburban Charlotte track, unofficially broke Ryan Newman’s track record of 188.877 mph with a lap of 189.056 on Wednesday night in testing for the May 21 NASCAR All-Star Challenge and the May 29 Coca-Cola 600. Records can be set only in qualifying or during races.

With the track surface ground down in an effort to eliminate some of the bumps, Goodyear has come up with a harder right-side tire. The fast lap by Gordon came as teams worked on long runs, searching for the correct chassis setups to complement the new tires.

“They’ve certainly found something that works very well with this track,” Gordon said about the renovated racing surface. “The corners are just fantastic. Some of the guys have been running more in the middle to higher lines, which is a positive thing. I think it’s a good sign of things to come.”

Martin Truex Jr., the defending Busch Series champion running a part-time Cup schedule, was second to Gordon at 186.464, followed by Greg Biffle at 186.047.

“I was so disappointed when they ground the track,” Biffle said. “I was like, Man, that was a great race track. They shouldn’t have messed with it.’ The bumps gave it character.

“But now I’m just shocked. I’ve never seen grinding a race track do what it did here. It’s just so fast. I’m driving in the second groove, or even the third groove. I’m not running on the bottom, so that tells you there will be side-by-side racing. This is going to be one of the best shows out of all 36 races.”

Others posting fast laps included Mike Bliss at 185.637, Casey Mears at 185.631, Ken Schrader at 185.478, Elliott Sadler at 185.287, Kyle Busch at 185.172, Bobby Hamilton Jr. at 185.084 and Mike Skinner at 184.906.