Edwards wins Bristol Busch race

Edwards led 147 out of 300 laps of what was a very eventful race.

More than one third of the distance - 103 laps exactly - were run under yellow flag due to the number of incidents. A record twelve cautions came out during the race, most of them in the first half of it.

The points-leader, who now extends his margin at the front of the standings to 197 points over reigning champion Kevin Harvick, was the most consistent of the top runners, battling for the lead with Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman in the early part of the race and then having his mirrors filled with Kenseth in the last few laps.

"I just can't thank Matt Kenseth enough for racing me that clean," said Edwards, who performed his trademark back flip jump from his car to celebrate his first victory at Bristol and his tenth in the Busch Series.

"The end of the race was great. To be able to hold off somebody as great as Matt Kenseth at a place like this meant a lot to me. That made the win a very special one.

"It was fun. It was a lot of nerves in that car. Five to go and he was a car-length from my bumper. It was exciting. That's what make it so much fun to me."

Kyle Busch, who was again a contender for the win, came third and was trying to get in touch with the leading duo of Edwards and Kenseth in the final laps, but was unable to get around backmarkers quick enough to put himself in contention.

Busch led 85 laps but spun twice during the race, the first time after getting loose in Turn 2, the second one after being bumped by Edwards with 69 laps to go, while running second.

Both times he was able to keep his car off the wall and quickly recovered on the restarts to move up the field. However, he was denied victory once more despite being the driver who has led the most laps over the last three races.

Both Edwards and Busch were in the middle of a strange situation during the ninth caution of the race, when NASCAR officials gave the pit-road open command through the radio, but the green light on the pit entry did not turn to green.

Neither of the leaders pitted but rivals behind them did as the green light came on seconds afterwards. NASCAR admitted there was a mistake on their part and reverted the race order to the one before the pitstops, allowing Busch and Edwards to lead the field on the restart.

Newman, who was the inital beneficiary of the pit-road light mishap, led 27 laps and looked a contender for victory early on but could not keep up with the pace of Edwards and Kenseth in the last third of the distance.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a respectable race debut at Bristol to finish 14th after spending the first half of the race trying to stay on the lead lap. He actualy got lapped but got the free pass on lap 112 when the fifth caution came out.

He was able to move through the field to run some laps in the top ten, pitting for tyres in the penultimate caution hoping to make up some places in the last 30 laps of the race. However, the traffic and a very loose car in the last stint, kept him from getting a topten finish.

"We had a chance [to be in the top ten]. I got really loose coming into [turn one] at the end and I lost like three or four places there. But I think we had a car for the top 10 today. We kept in one piece and that was the most important thing," said Montoya who runs now sixth in the points standings.

Steve Wallace, who had started from pole and led the first 32 laps of the race, was involved in a number of incidents after giving the lead away to Edwards.

Results:

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards        Ford        300
 2.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        300
 3.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   300
 4.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       300
 5.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   300
 6.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet   300
 7.  Greg Biffle         Ford        300
 8.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   300
 9.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet   300
10.  Mike Bliss          Dodge       300
11.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   300
12.  Todd Kluever        Ford        300
13.  David Ragan         Ford        300
14.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       300
15.  Jay Sauter          Chevrolet   300
16.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       298
17.  Stanton Barrett     Chevrolet   298
18.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Ford        298
19.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       298
20.  Stephen Leicht      Ford        298
21.  Danny O'Quinn Jr.   Chevrolet   298
22.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   296
23.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   295
24.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet   294
25.  Timothy Peters      Chevrolet   292
26.  Kevin Conway        Chevrolet   292
27.  Ward Burton         Ford        281
28.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford        271
29.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet   267
30.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      267
31.  Steve Wallace       Dodge       261
32.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet   258
33.  David Reutimann     Toyota      237
34.  Jason Leffler       Toyota      194
35.  David Gilliland     Ford        177
36.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet   157
37.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet   134
38.  Shane Huffman       Chevrolet   131
39.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford         77
40.  Brad Teague         Ford         53
41.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet    36
42.  Caleb Holman        Chevrolet    35
43.  Jon Wood            Ford          6