The Dodge Challenger 500 is the annual spring NASCAR Sprint Cup race held at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, USA. It began in 1957 as a 300 mile (483 km) race in the Convertible Division, known as the Rebel 300. In 1966, the race was expanded to 400 miles (644 km), and in 1973 to 500 miles (805 km). In 1994, the race was returned to 400 miles.

In 2005, by order of the Ferko lawsuit, the track's other event, the popular Mountain Dew Southern 500, was removed from the NASCAR Nextel Cup schedule. The "Rebel" returned to its classic Confederate Memorial Day weekend date, and raised back to 500 miles.

Memorable moments

• April 8, 1979 - In a race that was seen on ABC's Wide World of Sports, Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty hook horns in a memorable duel. On the final lap the lead changed hands 4 times, as Waltrip prevailed over Petty. During the race, David Pearson made a pit stop, and thought the Wood Brothers were going to change only two tires. With the lug nuts loosened all the way around, Pearson sped out of the pits after two tires had been replaced. The loose inside wheels flew off near the pit road, ending Pearson's day. A week later, Pearson was released from the Wood Brothers ride, despite scoring 43 wins from 1972 to 1978 with the Virginia-based team.

• March 16, 2003 - Before a national television audience, Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch fought a memorable duel that came back down to the final turn, when Craven edged out Busch by 0.002 seconds (about 2 inches) in the closest finish in NASCAR history (since NASCAR started using electronic transponders to determine scoring).