Edwards takes victory at Michigan

Edwards led 63 of the 200 laps at the 2-mile oval and kept his cool under pressure from Martin Truex Jr in the closing laps of the race, claiming the second win of the year for Roush Fenway Racing and also the second this season for a non-Chevrolet.

"It's unreal, I live a dream that I'm very fortunate to live. I get to do things I only imagined I get to do," said an ecstatic Edwards, who recovered from an early penalty for speeding on pit road to win for the first time in 52 races.

"Our car was good enough that we made it back up to the front and then at the end there Martin Truex was just amazingly fast. Martin's been on a roll lately so it was great to be able to beat him and really it meant a lot. Specially to win for Ford here."

The Busch Series point's leader celebrated his victory by doing his trademark back-flip in front of the start-finish line after completing a series of spins on the grass.

He then had a longtime bet paid on Victory lane by his motor-coach driver Tom Giacchi who had told his boss he would not shave his beard until he won a Nextel Cup race again.

Truex continued his roll with the third consecutive top three in as many races. He led most of the early part of the race but was then involved in the biggest crash of the day on lap 75, falling down the order.

He recovered to give Edwards a good run for his money but a brush with the wall caused some damage to the handling on his car, which from then on was not a match for Edwards' Ford.

"It was a great day for us," Truex said. "We had an awesome car there, we got shuffled back in the pack there and it took us a long time to get to the front and once we got there I kinda lost track in the adjustments of the car.

"I just got a little tight there at the end. I think I was a little bit better than Carl but I got as close as I could and then I got tight and hit the wall and ended up getting tighter."

Tony Stewart finished third after starting from the back of the field, having switched cars as a result of an accident in practice. Casey Mears had another solid run to finish fourth while Dale Earnhardt Jr rounded up a good weekend for his team crossing the line in fifth.

Stewart, Mears and Earnhardt all benefited from the misfortunes of Jimmie Johnson, who led 56 laps but was forced to pit from third with 8 laps to go after his car lost power due to fuel pressure problems, which eventually dropped him to 19th.

The reigning Nextel Cup champion lost one lap in the pits and sent waves of fuel mileage fears to rival teams down the pitlane as some were counting on a caution which in the end didn't arrive, as the last 80 laps racing were completed under green flag.

His teammate Jeff Gordon also led some laps halfway through the race, but eventually finished 9th in a day were most of his closest rivals in the points battle didn't profit on a day were the four-time Nextel Cup Champion didn't look particularly quick.

An example was Matt Kenseth, who also got caught in the multi-car wreck on lap 75, taking the worst part, as he was unable to rejoin the race. The incident was caused by a spinning Ryan Newman who was trying to get back on the lead lap after hitting trouble with his left rear in the early laps of the race.

Before that Juan Pablo Montoya had crashed on turn 2 on lap 68. He had brushed the wall a few laps before and apparently the impact led to a puncture on his right front tyre, which ultimately caused him to crash.

"The right front tyre went flat and just hit the hell out of the wall, but that's the way racing goes," Montoya said. "The car was very loose and I hit the wall a couple of laps before and hit the fender, and I saw a little bit of smoke but nothing major.

"The spotter said it looks good, you know, it's just wrinkle but it looks good. Five, six laps later just going into [turn] one, the tyre went flat and went straight into the wall."

Michael Waltrip, who was only starting his third race of the year, provided the biggest surprise of the day. He finished tenth as the highest finisher among the Toyotas and was feeling the physical effect of sitting out so many races once the 200 laps were over.

"I messed up there at the end; otherwise I think we could have picked up a few more spots," Waltrip said. "I just got real tight there at the end and I was trying to pass [Kevin] Harvick and got up into the wall.

"Today was a hot day and I haven't gotten to race this much in awhile, but I felt just as good at the end as I did in the beginning. But once the checkers fell -- then I started feeling bad -- hot, tired and glad it was over."

After today's race Gordon leads from Denny Hamlin who moved to second in the standings, while Jimmie Johnson went up to third with Matt Kenseth dropping two places down to fourth.

Pos  Driver                Car              Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards          Ford             200
 2.  Martin Truex Jr.      Chevrolet        200
 3.  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet        200
 4.  Casey Mears           Chevrolet        200
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.    Chevrolet        200
 6.  Kyle Busch            Chevrolet        200
 7.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet        200
 8.  Jamie McMurray        Ford             200
 9.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet        200
10.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota           199
11.  Bill Elliott          Ford             199
12.  Paul Menard           Chevrolet        199
13.  Robby Gordon          Ford             199
14.  Denny Hamlin          Chevrolet        199
15.  David Reutimann       Toyota           199
16.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet        199
17.  David Gilliland       Ford             199
18.  Dave Blaney           Toyota           199
19.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet        199
20.  Sterling Marlin       Chevrolet        199
21.  David Ragan           Ford             198
22.  Ricky Rudd            Ford             198
23.  Reed Sorenson         Dodge            198
24.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet        198
25.  Kurt Busch            Dodge            198
26.  Johnny Sauter         Chevrolet        198
27.  John Andretti         Dodge            198
28.  J.J. Yeley            Chevrolet        198
29.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet        198
30.  Joe Nemechek          Chevrolet        198
31.  A.J. Allmendinger     Toyota           197
32.  Kasey Kahne           Dodge            197
33.  Scott Riggs           Dodge            197
34.  Bobby Labonte         Dodge            197
35.  Elliott Sadler        Dodge            196
36.  Jeff Green            Chevrolet        196
37.  Ryan Newman           Dodge            196
38.  Greg Biffle           Ford             192
39.  Tony Raines           Chevrolet        184
40.  David Stremme         Dodge            183
41.  Brian Vickers         Toyota           140
42.  Matt Kenseth          Ford              78
43.  Juan Montoya          Dodge             67