Clint Bowyer wins 2008 NASCAR Nationwide series title.
November 15, 2008
Carl Edwards won the season-ending Ford 300 on Saturday night, but came up 21 points short in his attempt to overtake Clint Bowyer for the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.
All Bowyer had to do to keep Edwards from winning a second straight title in the second-tier series was finish in the top eight. He did that easily, taking fifth to stay on top of the standings, right where he has been most of the year despite winning only one of 35 races.
“We’ve been consistent,” Bowyer said after climbing out of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. “We did the things it takes to win championships. I want to thank Richard for giving me the opportunity.”
Edwards wrested the lead from Kyle Busch late in the race and stayed out front to the end of the 200-lap event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He earned his seventh Nationwide victory and kept Busch from recording a record 11th series win.
Edwards did all he could in his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, other than getting the five-point bonus for leading the most laps, but it wasn’t enough.
“We’ve raced a long time, we’re both from the Midwest and he’s a good competitor,” Bowyer said of Edwards. “He’s last year’s champion and it feels really good to beat him.”
It was a disappointing finish for Edwards, who faces even bigger odds Sunday trying to make up a 141-point deficit against Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint Cup finale. Johnson can wrap up the title by finishing 36th or better, no matter what Edwards does.
“Man, that’s a great win, to be able to hold off that 18 (Busch’s No. 18 Toyota), as strong as that group has been,” Edwards said. “It’s no good to finish second, but I know Clint will be a great champion.
“Tonight went about as well as it could and, no matter what happens tomorrow, we’re going to go into the offseason knowing we’re going to be really good next year.”
Both Edwards and Bowyer, another Cup star, had consistent seasons. The difference was Bowyer rolled up 29 top-10 finishes and finished every race, while Edwards had 22 top-10s and failed to finish two races.
“It’s not tonight that decided this championship,” Edwards said. “It’s an all-season thing. We’ve got a great team here and on the Cup side. There’s no shame in finishing second.”
The 29-year-old Bowyer, who started the night with a 56-point lead, fell out of the top 10 several times in the first half of the race. He actually trailed Edwards in points several times, but his team used a two-tire pit stop during a caution just past the halfway point to get its driver into the top five, and he managed to stay there the rest of the race.
The last of eight caution flags in the race came out with nine laps remaining, making things a little more nervous for Bowyer.
“I knew Clint had to be sweating those last few laps knowing some of those guys behind him had (fresh) tires,” Edwards said. “But he did a good job of staying where he needed to be.”
The last four laps were run under the green flag and none of the top five positions changed as Edwards pulled away from Busch.
Bowyer said it was a nerve-racking race.
“The whole race we were three-wide, in traffic, behind, trying to catch up,” he said. “Carl did a good job of keeping the pressure on us. But we knew we had to just stick with it and stay smart, and that’s what we did.”
The driver championship was the fifth for Childress in the developmental series.
Rookie Joey Logano, Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, started from the pole and finished 10th. That wrapped up the car owner points championship for Gibbs in the No. 20 Toyota, a car also driven at times this year by Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Bowyer wound up second in owner points, 12 behind.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Edwards and Harvick involved in fight at 2008 fall races at Lowe’s.
October 10, 2008
Greg Biffle isn’t angry with teammate Carl Edwards for starting a 12-car crash at Talladega Superspeedway.
Neither is Matt Kenseth.
Kevin Harvick? Not quite over it.
Witnesses said Edwards and Harvick were in a heated argument Thursday in the Nationwide Series garage at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Edwards apparently walked into Harvick’s garage stall and the two engaged in a heated argument.
Harvick appeared to try to walk away, and witnesses said Edwards reached for his shoulder to turn him back on. Harvick then shoved Edwards, who stumbled onto the hood of Harvick’s car, and the two had to be separated.
Harvick was unavailable for comment.
Edwards didn’t deny the two argued, but wouldn’t discuss the incident.
“The deal with me and Harvick is between me and him and there’s nothing else to talk about,” he said. “I’m not talking about that. That’s just what it is. We know where each other stands and that’s it.”
Edwards triggered the late crash Sunday when he tried to push Biffle as the three Roush Fenway Racing cars competed raced for the lead. But his bumper hooked the corner of Biffle’s, sending Biffle into a slide directly into Kenseth.
Several championship contenders were caught in the melee, including Harvick, who had harsh words for Edwards and his strategy after the accident.
“I know that his fans won’t be very proud of him sitting back there riding around like a pansy,” Harvick said. “If he had been racing all day, maybe he would have known how long the front of his car was.”
Biffle and Kenseth were both upset with their teammate immediately following the accident, but both said they were over it by the time they got to Lowe’s.
“We can point fingers all day about what happened,” Biffle said. “He understands that he made a mistake and there’s nothing we can do about that now. Certainly he didn’t want to wreck himself, because that’s what he did, he wrecked himself.
“I don’t know what else to state about it, but I’m not mad at him.”
Kenseth, who argued with Edwards last fall at Martinsville, said he was initially upset about the accident but had moved past it.
“Our relationship is fine,” Kenseth said. “I was disappointed. I thought that Carl knew better. He’s been preaching the stuff about being careful and working together and teammates and all this stuff, so I was disappointed it happened, but yet it was an accident and that stuff will happen.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Kyle Busch wins 7th Nationwide race of 2008 in California.
August 31, 2008
It’s Kyle Busch — again.
The 23-year-old NASCAR star was dominant Saturday night on the 2-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway, leading 144 of the 150 laps to race off with his seventh Nationwide Series victory of the season.
Busch easily held off Sprint Cup rival Carl Edwards on a pair of late-race restarts, piling up his record 18th NASCAR victory of the season, including eight in the Cup and three in the Craftsman Truck Series.
This one was one of the easiest of the season as Busch gave Joe Gibbs Racing its 15th Nationwide win of the year, including a victory in the February race here by teammate Tony Stewart, who led 136 of 150 laps. It was also the first win for the Gibbs Nationwide team since it was hit with seven suspensions, big fines and the loss of championship points for cheating on a chassis dyno engines test following the Nationwide race at Michigan.
“These guys got a bad rap a few weeks ago for what happened, but they don’t deserve it,” said Busch, who started from the pole. “This one means a lot. These guys have had a lot of adversity on them the past few weeks.”
Busch said his No. 18 Toyota was “flawless, really amazing.
“I think the biggest challenge was just being good on the restarts and getting away,” he added. “It just fun to run like this.”
Edwards, the defending Nationwide champion who is locked in a three-way points battle this season with leader Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski, finished second, followed by Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, rookie Joey Logano and Bowyer.
Keselowski had a long stop for repairs after his engine quit and wound up 33rd. That left him in second, 204 points behind Bowyer and 18 ahead of Edwards.
“It was a great points night for us,” Edwards said. “Nobody was going to touch that (No.) 18. Those guys were scary fast. It was a lot of fun, but he was in a different zip code.”
Busch and Edwards are 1-2 in the Cup points and have been the two hottest drivers in NASCAR’s top series over the last few weeks, with Edwards winning three of the last four races and Busch finishing second to Edwards the last two weeks after winning the previous race.
Edwards bumped a dominating Busch out of the lead 30 laps from the end last week in the Cup race at Bristol, and the two then bumped each other on pit road, with NASCAR later putting both on probation for six races for the postrace incident.
Edwards gave Busch’s car a small bump on the rear as they drove slowly to pit road after the race.
“Oh yeah,” Edwards said. “I was just messing around with him. I couldn’t get to him to hit him all day. Even if I wanted to wreck him, I couldn’t because he was so fast. “He can have tonight,” Edwards added. “Tomorrow will be ours. We’ve won two in a row and I believe our car will be real good.”
Busch made his last pit stop under the green flag on lap 125. He came out of the pits behind the cars of Bowyer and Kelly Bires, who had not yet made their final stop. He was back in the lead three laps later and stayed there the rest of the way.
A crash by Chase Miller on lap 132 wiped out Busch’s 2.2-second lead and gave Edwards a shot at the leader on the restart on lap 136. But the Toyota easily pulled away from Edward’s Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
Debris brought out another caution on lap 139, this time erasing Busch’s 1.2-second margin. But, again, he pulled away steadily after the green flag waved for the final time on lap 143 and was a solid two seconds ahead before the race ended under caution after a crash by Josh Wise on the final lap.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Keselowski wins Nationwide race at Bristol to tighten points.
August 23, 2008
Brad Keselowski passed Clint Bowyer with 24 laps to go Friday night and pulled away for his second victory of the season in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, capping a remarkable run from the 37th starting position at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bowyer dominated the race after he slipped by Dario Franchitti for the lead on lap 107, but appeared to wiggle exiting the second turn on the 227th lap as Keselowski went past him.
“We were dead equal, Clint and I,” Keselowski said after climbing from his car in the cloud of smoke of a just-completed burnout. “I needed to catch a break and he gave it to me.”
Car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. greeted Keselowski after the finish.
“Victory Lane, Bristol,” the boss told his driver. “It gets no better than that, man.”
Bowyer, who has won just once, was dejected after leading 121 laps.
“It was good right up until whatever lap that was where I made a mistake,” he said, adding that he tried too quickly to get back on the gas coming out of the second turn. “It came out from underneath me there and I had to check up or I would have spun out.”
Bowyer quickly gathered his car and gave chase, but Keselowski held on, moving him closer to Bowyer atop the points standings after 29 of 35 races. Keselowski is now 122 points behind Bowyer, and Carl Edwards dropped to third.
Bowyer held on to finish second, followed by Greg Biffle, pole-sitter Cale Gale and David Stremme in a race that was slowed just five times by cautions, and for only 26 laps.
Bowyer has finished in the top 10 in 21 of 26 races, but with just one win.
“It’s been a frustrating two months for me,” Bowyer said. “It’s good when you can be frustrated with second, but we did give one away today. When you look at it, it was obvious.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
NASCAR docks Stewart, Logano, bans pit chiefs
August 20, 2008
NASCAR suspended seven crew members of Joe Gibbs Racing and stripped drivers
Crew chiefs Jason Ratcliff and Dave Rogers were suspended indefinitely and fined $50,000 each, but NASCAR decided not to bar the cars from future races.
Owner Joe Gibbs said he would not appeal the penalties, and added he would also personally fine the crew members involved and suspend them through the end of the season.
“We want to apologize to NASCAR, all of our partners, all of our families at JGR, and all of our fans for the unfortunate incident that took place this past weekend in Michigan with our two Nationwide teams,” Gibbs said in a statement. “A poor decision was made by some key members of our organization, and 100 percent of the blame rests with us.”
No. 18 car chief Dorian Thorsen, engine tuner Michael Johnson and crew member Toby Bigelow and No. 20 car chief Richard Bray and engine tuner Dan Bajek also received indefinite suspensions. JGR was docked 150 owner points for each car and the teams were placed on probation for the rest of the season.
After Stewart finished third in Saturday’s race at Michigan International Speedway in the No. 20 car and Logano was seventh in the No. 18, inspectors found magnets under the gas pedals of both cars when they were sent to the chassis dyno for examination. NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said the teams were attempting to mask the cars’ true horsepower.
“In 17 years we have never had any representative of Joe Gibbs Racing knowingly act outside of NASCAR’s rules, and that is something we consider essential to how we operate on a daily basis,” Gibbs said. “What we have determined is that these individuals involved used extremely poor judgment in attempting to alter the results of NASCAR’s dyno test following Saturday’s Nationwide Series race in Michigan.
“Although in no way was anything done that might have altered the race outcome, these JGR employees attempted to circumvent the NASCAR rule book and that is unacceptable.”
The discovery of using magnets to try to prevent the gas pedal from reaching the floor came as Gibbs’ No. 18 and No. 20 Toyotas have dominated this season. They’ve combined to win 14 of 25 Nationwide races and NASCAR last month ordered all Toyota teams to cut about 15 horsepower in their motors.
The No. 20 car’s lead in the owners standing was cut to 168 over the No. 2 car owned by Richard Childress Racing.
The penalties, among the most severe handed down by NASCAR, comes as the sanctioning body continues to take a harder stance on cheating.
NASCAR took away 150 driver points from
But JGR, which has prided itself on running a squeaky-clean operation, had rarely come under scrutiny from NASCAR. Before last weekend, the last time a JGR car came under suspicion was in 2003 when Stewart’s car was impounded after failing inspection before it hit the track at Texas Motor Speedway.
The point deductions mean little to Stewart, who was racing in his final Nationwide race for JGR, and Logano, who has run a partial schedule since turning 18 earlier this year. But Gibbs said he didn’t agree with placing the drivers on probation, claiming they had no knowledge of the cheating.
NASCAR on Wednesday also fined Sprint Cup driver
Carl Edwards wins 16th career Nationwide race at Michigan.
August 17, 2008
Carl Edwards took the lead in the pits, then drove away Saturday for his first NASCAR Nationwide Series victory at Michigan International Speedway and 16th overall series win.
The reigning series champion was trailing fellow Sprint Cup star Tony Stewart when the leaders drove onto pit road under a caution flag on lap 93. Edwards, driving a Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, came out in front and easily led to the end of the 125-lap race on the 2-mile oval.
“I’m just so happy that we won this thing,” Edwards said after doing his traditional victory backflip off his car. “We’ve been close before. I don’t know if we would have been able to get by Tony or not. He was pretty quick.
“The car was awesome all day. There were a couple of cars that were real fast — Tony and Brian Vickers. But my pit crew just did a great job there at the end. I don’t know what kind of problem Tony had on pit road, but it was sure a lot easier to pass him there than it would have been on the racetrack.”
It was the 19th victory for team co-owner Jack Roush at Michigan, but the first in the series previously sponsored by Busch since 1998.
“We’ve certainly had more than our share of good finishes here, and it seems like it’s a track where we always race well,” said Roush, whose headquarters are in nearby Livonia. “It’s a very good feeling.”
Edwards, who led a race-high 71 laps on the way to his third Nationwide victory of the season, was nearly 3.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Vickers before Danny Efland crash at the start of the last lap. The race finished under caution.
“You don’t want to come across greedy, but I’m getting sick and tired of not winning one of these races,” said Vickers, who will start from the pole in Sunday’s Cup race. “We feel like every race we’ve been in we’ve led, but we haven’t led the right lap.”
Asked what the difference was between Edwards’ Ford and his Toyota, Vickers said, “I really feel like it was the power difference between the Ford and the Toyotas with the new (restrictor) plate. Carl just got too far out ahead of us at the end and we didn’t have enough time.”
Stewart wound up third, followed by Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Mike Bliss and 18-year-old rookie Joey Logano.
Series leader Clint Bowyer, who collided with David Reutimann as they battled for fourth place late in the race, wound up 10th and saw both Edwards and Brad Keselowski chop into his margin. Edwards, who has 16 Nationwide victories, is 113 points behind Bowyer, while Keselowski, who finished 11th, is 132 behind heading into Bristol next week.
“It was a fun day,” said Stewart, making his last Nationwide start with Joe Gibbs Racing. “I never thought it would be such a big deal, but it has been. It’s not like I’ll never see these guys again, but I know this is the last time I’m going to work with this particular group of guys.”
Stewart, who will leave the Gibbs team at the end of the season to become an owner-driver in Cup with Stewart-Haas Racing, finished his Nationwide season with five wins and eight top-10s in nine races.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Ambrose wins first career Nationwide race at The Glen.
August 10, 2008
Marcos Ambrose took advantage of a fortuitous pit stop midway through the Nationwide Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday and easily beat Kyle Busch for his first career NASCAR victory.
Ambrose, from Tasmania, was in the pits on lap 42 when the fourth caution of the 82-lap race flew. He gained the lead on lap 48 but gave it up right away to top off for fuel.
Ambrose worked his way up to third with 12 laps to go as Jeff Burton and Jimmie Johnson battled for the lead. But the two leaders ran out of fuel with less than four laps remaining and Ambrose coasted to the victory in the No. 59 JTG Daugherty Racing Ford.
“I just feel like a weight is off my shoulders, just a huge relief,” said Ambrose, who was third last week in the rain in Montreal after leading the most laps and second on the road course in Mexico. “We’ve come close. We haven’t been able to close the deal. I’ve had to be patient.”
“He’s been due,” Busch said. “He was leading last week in the rain by nine seconds.”
Matt Kenseth finished third, followed by Kevin Harvick and polesitter Dario Franchitti, who was back in a NASCAR racecar for the first time in nearly a month. Franchitti, who lost his Cup ride with Chip Ganassi Racing last month because of a lack of sponsorship, led 18 laps in the first of seven Nationwide starts the former Indianapolis 500 champion will make this season for Ganassi.
Brad Keselowski was sixth and moved past Carl Edwards into second place in the series standings, 128 points behind leader Clint Bowyer. Rookie Joey Logano finished seventh in his first race at Watkins Glen.
Bowyer was running in the top 10 on a restart following the fifth and final caution of the race, but Edwards slammed into him on the first turn and both ran off course. Edwards finished 25th, two spots behind Bowyer.
Johnson, in only his second start in the series this year, was seeking his first career road course victory and led 17 laps before pit strategy ruined his day. He finished 29th, while Burton limped home 14th.
Johnson was leading midway through the race but was caught speeding off pit road under the caution on lap 42 and was sent to the rear of the field. Joining him there was Busch, who was penalized for an uncontrolled tire in the pits. Both came back in to top off with fuel, but too many laps remained to finish the race without pitting again.
Still, both tried, gambling on cautions that never came. Burton, who had spun out on lap 3, gained the lead on lap 51 with Busch close behind.
Busch, seeking to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win three road courses in one season, then stalked Burton for seven laps, often smoking his front tires on heavy braking in the turns.
On the final turn of lap 62, Busch hit the right rear of Burton and both cars spun completely around. Busch rammed it in second gear and quickly took off with the lead as both drivers recovered, and Ambrose was able to get past Johnson for third when Johnson slowed because of smoke created by the spinout.
Burton, one of the most mild-mannered drivers in NASCAR, exacted payback six laps later, catching the rear of Busch’s No. 92 Toyota and regaining the lead as Johnson roared past Busch into second.
In an effort to save fuel, Johnson backed off and trailed by 1.2 seconds but was well ahead of Ambrose and Busch. But Johnson was forced to pit at the end of lap 78, four laps shy of the finish. Burton continued but ran out the next time around, giving Ambrose the lead.
The final lap was tense. Ambrose had a big lead over Busch, but Boris Said was right in front of him and crew chief Gary Cogswell told Ambrose not to pass.
Good idea. Ambrose spun Said in the April race in Mexico and the irate Said walked to the Australian’s pit box and apologized to Cogswell for the car that Ambrose’s team would have to fix down the road.
“It’s pretty tremendous,” Cogswell said. “The race was just like a storybook race. It’s hard to just beat people. There’s just so many good cars. We were just able to put ourselves in the right position to win. Everything went the way it needed to for us to win.”
“I’ve dragged my family halfway around the world, away from my dad and mom, and everybody who needs me back in Australia,” said the 31-year-old Ambrose, the first Aussie to win a race in any of NASCAR’s top three divisions. “Today it just feels like it’s worthwhile. It feels like I’ve conquered a huge mountain.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Road coarse ace Fellows wins Nationwide race in Montreal.
August 3, 2008
Carl Edwards used a squeegee to clean his windshield while he drove under caution.
Jacques Villeneuve and Joey Logano wrecked with the yellow flag flying. And rooster tails flew off the grooved — yes, grooved — back tires.
It certainly was a history-making day at rainy Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — right down to the winner, Canadian road-racerRon Fellows.
In the first NASCAR points race run on grooved rain tires, Fellows splashed his way to victory — his fourth road-race win in 13 Nationwide Series starts — in the event that ended 26 laps early because of heavy rain and poor visibility.
“Visibility was the big, big problem,” said Fellows, the first Canadian winner in a major NASCAR race in Canada. “At over 70 mph, there was just so much spray.”
The 48-year-old Ontario driver took advantage of Marcos Ambrose’s pit-road speeding penalty to take the lead, and had about a half-minute advantage over fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier when the NAPA Auto Parts 200 was red-flagged.
“It’s very dangerous,” Fellows said minutes before the race was called.
After just eight laps on the 2.71-mile, 14-turn road course, rain and lightning forced an eight-minute delay. The cars returned to the track with the grooved Goodyear tires and many also had a single windshield wiper.
“This is ridiculous,” early leader Scott Pruett said over his radio.
Grooved tires also were used in 1999 during a Craftsman Truck Series practice on the road course at Watkins Glen. In 1997, rain tires were used in practice and qualifying for an exhibition race in Japan.
After averaging about 90 mph on the regular slick tires before the rain arrived, the leaders’ average speed dropped to about 75 mph on the grooved tires.
“That was different,” Fellows said. “This is incredible.”
Fellows, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Dale Eanrhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports, led the final seven laps. Ambrose finished third after leading a race-high 27 laps.
Ron Hornaday Jr. was fourth, followed by Boris Said, Edwards, Jason Leffler, Greg Biffle, series leader Clint Bowyer and Scott Wimmer.
“All in all, I’m surprised how well everyone did and how few accidents there were,” Said said. “In the end, people were wrecking under caution because you just couldn’t see. The cars were hydroplaning.”
Villeneuve, the former Formula One and CART champion racing on the track named after his late father, had so much trouble seeing out of his Toyota that he ran into the back of another car during the final caution period.
Running sixth at the time of the accident, he ended up 15th.
“I couldn’t see a thing,” Villeneuve said.
Logano also wrecked during the final caution.
“I hit a lapped car with no brake lights. I have no idea who it was,” Logano said. “I couldn’t see 5 feet in front of me down the straightaway, under caution. Somebody stopped. I locked up all four and boom! … It’s just not right.”
The teen star finished 16th.
“It was fun, but it’s not good to see guys wrecking under yellow,” Edwards said.
The historic tire move came a week after tire troubles derailed the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis. Goodyear’s tires weren’t durable enough to withstand more than 10 or so laps at a time, creating a chaotic and confusing caution-filled race.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Toyota told to cut back horsepower in Nationwide series.
July 23, 2008
NASCAR tried to even out the competition in the Nationwide Series on Wednesday by ordering all teams using Toyota motors to squeeze down their horsepower before this weekend’s race in Indianapolis.
Toyota has won 14 of 21 races this season in the Nationwide Series, and all but one of them came in a Camry fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. The exception was JGR driver Kyle Busch’s victory at Charlotte in May in a car fielded by Braun Racing.
NASCAR ordered all the Toyota motors to use a smaller restrictor that will knock down 15 horsepower in the motors.
NASCAR recently sent 10 different motors for testing, and found that David Reutimann’s Toyota was the best with an estimated 3 percent horsepower advantage over the competition. JGR’s No. 18 car — which Busch drove to victory at Chicago right before the motors were tested — was second.
Roush Fenway Racing’s Nos. 16 and 17 Fords were next, followed by JGR’s No. 20 car, which has won nine races with four different drivers this season.
JGR builds its own motors for its two Nationwide Series cars. The rest of the Toyota engines in that series and the Craftsman Truck Series come from Triad Racing Development, a Bill Davis-owned company that leases engines.
Toyota president Lee White did not immediately return a call for comment.
Technically, the new guidelines aren’t directed solely at Toyota. But because the automaker is working with a brand new engine and has access to the latest technology, Toyota teams have gained an advantage over the manufacturers using older engine models.
If the other manufacturers should reach the stage Toyota is currently at, they would be subject to the horsepower guidelines NASCAR mandated Wednesday.
Chevrolet has been pushing to use its new engine in the Nationwide Series, and many believe that model is on par with the Toyota motors.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Carl Edwards takes 2008 Nationwide race in St. Louis.
July 21, 2008
Carl Edwards was in no rush to get to the post-race interview room at Gateway International Raceway.
Edwards passed Jason Leffler with 49 laps remaining Saturday night and cruised to victory at the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250, marking his second win at Gateway in three years in front of a nearly hometown crowd.
“It was so hard to leave victory lane, I didn’t want to come down here,” said Edwards, who grew up in Columbia, Mo., about a 2-hour drive from the track. “I have so many friends down there, they’re taking pictures. It’s just really, really special to win here for me.”
Joey Logano, the 18-year-old racer in just his fifth race, finished second after starting fourth. Jason Keller took third, followed by Leffler and Brad Keselowski.
Edwards earned his second victory on the Nationwide circuit in 21 starts this year. He has nine Top 5 finishes and 11 in the Top 10. Edwards took advantage of the sixth caution of the 200-lap race. He got four tires and filled his tank, coming out of the pits third. He quickly overtook Leffler and James Buescher and went on for the easy victory.
“When you’ve got it, you’ve got it,” Logano said. “And (Edwards’ team) hit it dead on tonight. It was showing pretty much the whole race. My car wasn’t horrible. It was pretty good, but Carl’s car was remarkable.”
The final caution, caused after David Reutimann got underneath the back of Keselowski, provided one of several pauses during the choppy race.
Landon Cassill, who finished sixth, started a five-car accident that brought out a red flag with 84 laps left. He sent Scott Wimmer into the wall with a tap to the driver’s side back bumper, causing a chain reaction that knocked out Wimmer, Mike Bliss, last-year’s winner Reed Sorenson and Steve Wallace.
The cars remained under red for nearly 30 minutes as the track was cleaned before driving resumed under caution for five laps with pole-winner Jamie McMurray in the lead.
“When you’ve got a guy who doesn’t want to get passed and a guy who wants to pass, it gets tough,” Cassill said. “I was just right on (Wimmer), but it’s just hard to give up track position. I saw him bobble and as soon as he bobbled, it was too late. I just nudged him.”
The event started despite a partial power outage that darkened about a third of the lights around the track, including the caution lights, the scoring tower and the public address system.
Officials called a competition caution on Lap 22 to practice going through the procedure without the caution lights. The caution was lifted on Lap 25 and all the power was restored almost immediately after the green flag was waived.
However, the caution lights went blank for a second time. That brought out another competition caution on Lap 72.
McMurray, who earned the pole with a speed of 133.101 mph during qualifying, left the race with engine problems after completing 152 laps. It marked the 11th time in 12 events at Gateway that the pole-sitter failed to win. Martin Truex Jr.’s victory in 2004 was the only time the top qualifier has won at Gateway.
Logano led twice for a total of 42 laps and he finished for the second consecutive race and in the Top 5 for the third straight.
In the end, however, it was Edwards’ final pitstop that got him the victory.
“There’s only been a couple of times I’ve had a car that dominant at the end of race,” Edwards said. “I was just cruising around at the end and the car was so good. I was really proud of the guys for making the adjustments like that. I couldn’t believe how fast it was.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.