Edwards wins Loudon Busch race

Harvick closed to within a few car lengths' of Edwards in the final few laps as the leaders encountered traffic, but Edwards stayed calm, successfully negotiated the lapped cars, and crossed the line 0.604 seconds ahead - much to his relief.

"I don't know if it was exciting for the fans or not, but I thought Kevin was coming and it was exciting for me," Edwards said.

"I was trying to persuade Mr. (Dave) Blaney in front of me to move over because I needed some clean air. Dave's an awesome guy, and when he saw Kevin coming, he moved over. So he's on my Christmas list for sure, I can't thank him enough.

"That was fun, but that was stressful - it takes years off your life."

Harvick didn't think his car was really competitive enough to challenge Edwards for the win.

"We started running him down and once I got five or six car lengths from him I got a little bit too tight," said Harvick. "We tightened it up from the middle of the race when we were too loose, and we just came up a little bit short."

Denny Hamlin finished a solitary third, clear of a spectacular battle for the remaining top six places.

The star of the race was fifth place finisher Clint Bowyer, who took the lead from polesitter Kyle Busch on lap 16 and commanded the majority of the event.

Bowyer led the next 127 laps, with his advantage growing as large as five seconds on several occasions. But then he pitted for his final stop just before a full course yellow, dropping him down to 16th, the last of the cars on the lead lap.

Edwards had been Bowyer's nearest rival prior to the stops, and he duly took charge of the closing stages. Bowyer remained the fastest man on track as he clawed his way back through to fifth, finishing a few tenths behind fourth-placed Paul Menard.

"I feel bad for Clint Bowyer," Edwards admitted. "As good as his car was earlier, to lose the lead like that has got to be frustrating, but I'm just glad I'm the guy who got it."

Results:

Pos  Driver             Make      Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards       Ford       200
 2.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  200
 3.  Denny Hamlin       Chevrolet  200
 4.  Paul Menard        Chevrolet  200
 5.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  200
 6.  Johnny Sauter      Chevrolet  200
 7.  Scott Riggs        Dodge      200
 8.  J.J. Yeley         Chevrolet  200
 9.  Scott Wimmer       Ford       200
10.  Greg Biffle        Ford       200
11.  Mark McFarland     Chevrolet  200
12.  Mike Wallace       Dodge      200
13.  Todd Kluever       Ford       200
14.  Jason Leffler      Chevrolet  200
15.  Dave Blaney        Chevrolet  199
16.  Kyle Busch         Chevrolet  199
17.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      199
18.  John Andretti      Ford       199
19.  Jay Sauter         Chevrolet  199
20.  Jon Wood           Ford       199
21.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  198
22.  David Green        Ford       198
23.  Michael Waltrip    Dodge      198
24.  Ashton Lewis       Ford       198
25.  Stacy Compton      Ford       198
26.  Tim Sauter         Chevrolet  197
27.  Kenny Wallace      Ford       197
28.  Auggie Vidovich    Dodge      197
29.  Danny O'Quinn Jr.  Ford       197
30.  Aaron Fike         Chevrolet  196
31.  Kertus Davis       Chevrolet  196
32.  Jamie McMurray     Dodge      189
33.  Stephen Leicht     Ford       181
34.  Tracy Hines        Dodge      163
35.  Regan Smith        Ford       96
36.  Derrike Cope       Ford       84
37.  Peyton Sellers     Chevrolet  79
38.  Carl Long          Chevrolet  38
39.  Matt Kobyluck      Chevrolet  36
40.  Shane Hall         Chevrolet  29
41.  Stanton Barrett    Chevrolet  27
42.  Morgan Shepherd    Chevrolet  17
43.  Joey McCarthy      Chevrolet  16