Edwards sweeps Michigan with fifth win

Edwards fended off points' leader Kyle Busch in a green-white-chequered finish after his Roush Fenway pit crew performed a quicker two-tyre pitstop during a late caution to beat the Gibbs' driver off pitroad.

The Columbia, Missouri native celebrated his 29th birthday in style with his two wins, which further put him in contention for titles both in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series this year.

He led the most laps during the afternoon once he grabbed the lead for the first time on lap 74, overtaking Dale Earnhardt Jr. After that, Busch emerged as his main threat for victory but once he controlled the Toyota driver on the restarts he had enough pace to stay up front.

"We beat him on pitroad, my guys were unbelievable," said Edwards. "I knew Kyle was going to be tough on the restarts, you know, he's really good. He's a heck of a competitor. I'm just glad I got the jump on him there.

"I knew what he was going to do. He was hanging back a little bit and he was going to get a run to make it really tough but we had the fastest car on the racetrack and I'm proud to be driving it today."

"We're here to win championships and ten (extra) points is ten points. And the beauty of it is keeping Kyle from getting those points. He's so fast, you can't give him any room."

In a day when four Roush Fenway cars finished in the top five, Busch had to be happy to come second. The 23-year-old looked capable of keeping Edwards at bay at some point but once he lost the lead to him on that final stop it was game over for the young 'Rowdy'.

"It just came down to when he beat us off pitroad, that was it for us," said Busch. "We didn't quite have the car capable of being able to beat those guys today. We were good there on that one run on one new set of tyres and that's pretty much all we had.

"Had a great car to be able to come home second, from where we were here in the spring we weren't than competitive so to come out of here with second, we're happy with that. At least we've got something to build on."

David Ragan made great strides towards his Chase aspirations by finishing an equaling career-best third after running strong all day. He gained track position in the end by staying out when Edwards and Busch pitted but had enough pace to give the point's leader a hard time battling for second place on the penultimate restart.

"We were nine out of a ten while those other guys were a ten," said Ragan about his car. "We gambled a little bit and knew the worst case would be finishing in the top-five.

"It was something to take a shot, we certainly learned from it and if we had to do it all over again we'd probably stayed out again and depending on how the caution came out we could've finished second but here we are in third."

Greg Biffle finished fourth while Matt Kenseth forced his way through to pass veteran and former Roush Fenway teammate Mark Martin in the last lap to round up the top-five and an amazing day for Jack Roush. The team's fifth car driven by Jamie McMurray finished tenth.

But while Roush celebrated in what is probably his home race, as Roush Industries are based in the Michigan area, Rick Hendrick had a dark day with his top-three cars all hitting some kind of trouble.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson had led the field on lap one but nearly halfway through the race he got squeezed in between Tony Stewart and his teammate Jeff Gordon out of turn four. The three made contact while running side-by-side and Johnson had to pit under green for a bent fender that was rubbing against the left-front tyre.

While Johnson went a lap down in the process, Gordon blew up a right front tyre a few laps later and crashed hard against the wall at turn two, finishing his day on the spot and dropping worryingly in the standings only three races away from the start of the Chase.

Dale Earnhardt Jr also stuffed the right side of his car against the wall on the penultimate restart after gambling on staying out while the leaders pitted.

He had dropped down the order but had been running well within the top ten following a very good start to his race, as he led 43 laps in the first half of the distance before struggling with a very loose car.

Besides Gordon others who ended up in a compromising position towards their Chase hopes were Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin, both being hit by engine issues in the second half of the race.

Kyle Busch has now mathematically secured the top seeding for the Chase, with three races left before the top-twelve cut is made for the series' 'playoff'.

Pos  Driver               Make        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards         Ford        200
 2.  Kyle Busch           Toyota      200
 3.  David Ragan          Ford        200
 4.  Greg Biffle          Ford        200
 5.  Matt Kenseth         Ford        200
 6.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet   200
 7.  Brian Vickers        Toyota      200
 8.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet   200
 9.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge       200
10.  Jamie McMurray       Ford        200
11.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet   200
12.  Tony Stewart         Toyota      200
13.  Travis Kvapil        Ford        200
14.  David Reutimann      Toyota      200
15.  Scott Riggs          Chevrolet   200
16.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet   200
17.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet   200
18.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet   199
19.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota      199
20.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet   199
21.  Ryan Newman          Dodge       199
22.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge       199
23.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet   199
24.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet   199
25.  Juan Montoya         Dodge       199
26.  David Gilliland      Ford        199
27.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge       199
28.  AJ Allmendinger      Toyota      199
29.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet   199
30.  Patrick Carpentier   Dodge       199
31.  Tony Raines          Chevrolet   199
32.  Terry Labonte        Dodge       198
33.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge       198
34.  Joe Nemechek         Chevrolet   198
35.  Mike Skinner         Toyota      198
36.  Kurt Busch           Dodge       197
37.  Robby Gordon         Dodge       197
38.  Brad Coleman         Toyota      197
39.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota      194
40.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge       162
41.  Dave Blaney          Toyota      117
42.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet   111
43.  Marcos Ambrose       Ford         17