Edwards wins Nationwide at Memphis

Edwards had a busy morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway where he paced both Sprint Cup series practices before flying to Memphis to do a bit more of the same.

He dominated the race once he grabbed the lead on lap 68 from Mike Bliss and only looked challenged for victory on the green-white-chequered finish by David Reutimann, who did his best to try to nail a second victory in a row at the 0.75-mile oval.

However the Roush Fenway driver successfully fended off his attacks to claim his first ever victory at Memphis and the Elvis Presley trophy that came with it.

"This is the first place I ever ran a NASCAR stock car," Edwards said. "So to come back here and be the winner is unbelievable. I just can't thank David Reutimann enough for racing me so clean. He could have knocked me out of the way and he didn't.

"This car was fast all day but (crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) made that call to put us in a position to put a lot of people (a lap) down. We needed a day like this to close on Clint (Bowyer) in the points. We've only got three more races to pick up a hundred and something points. It'll be fun."

Points leader Bowyer spun on lap 125 at Turn 1 while trying to avoid contact with another car and couldn't recover further than 16th, finishing the race three laps down. His lead in the standings took a big hit and Edwards is now 116 points behind him with three races to go.

Reutimann made an impressive recovery from being two laps down in the early going to challenge for victory on the last lap. He admits he could have bumped Edwards out of the way in the closing stages but preferred to race him clean.

"It wasn't looking to good for us there in the beginning," said Reutimann. "We got two laps down and I thought we would never get a chance to get back up there.

"Come the end we had better tyres (than Edwards) and to make a long story short I could have gone there and moved him and we'd be alright, but I mean, that's not my deal. I've got a lot of respect for Carl and that's what it is. You see a lot of guys do the 'bump and run' but it's just not my deal."

Kenny Wallace was a surprise third driving for Jay Robertson Racing, scoring his first top five finish in NASCAR in nearly three years. Behind him 18-year-old Austin Dillon also turned some heads finishing fourth in just his second Nationwide Series start driving for his grandfather Richard Childress.

"It was a great improvement for us," said Dillon. "The car was really good today. The crew did a great job and I'm really happy with the finish. We executed what we wanted to do and improved our finish tremendously."

Joey Logano looked at some points like he had the car to contend but ended up disappointed with a fifth place finish on his first ever visit to Memphis. Chase Miller finished behind the JGR driver as the last to see the chequered flag on the lead lap.

Brad Keselowski was another one falling victim to the close-contact nature of short track racing when he got spun on the first lap by Jason Keller. He did his best to try to come back through the field but finished the race right behind Bowyer in 17th, and his title hopes are all but gone now as he is 289 points off from the RCR driver in the standings.

The race finished with some controversy as Bobby Hamilton Jr got spun on the last corner, apparently by Landon Cassill. Hamilton drove beside Cassill into pit road when the race was over, parked his car in front of the No. 5 machine and then came out of his car, dropped Cassill's window net down to retaliate against the JR Motorsports driver, who remained in his car.

Hamilton's wife made hand gestures to Cassill later and was caught on live television doing so.

"I went over to make sure he was okay and that his throttle wasn't hanging or nothing," said Hamilton later. "As long as he knows what hard racing is. He's young. He's going to be a great winner, a champion in this sport. As long as he'll learn his lessons and that's what makes a great driver."

Marc Davis, the first African American driver to compete in the Nationwide Series since Chase Austin raced at Memphis a year ago for Rusty Wallace's team, completed his debut in the second-tier series driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and finishing 23rd.

Jimmie Johnson's brother Jarit made his third ever Nationwide Series start driving for Armando Fitz, but got spun on lap 228 at Turn 2 and only finished 32nd.

Pos  Driver             Car        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards       Ford       253
 2.  David Reutimann    Toyota     253
 3.  Kenny Wallace      Chevrolet  253
 4.  Austin Dillon      Chevrolet  253
 5.  Joey Logano        Toyota     253
 6.  Chase Miller       Dodge      253
 7.  Mike Bliss         Chevrolet  252
 8.  David Ragan        Ford       251
 9.  Steve Wallace      Chevrolet  251
10.  David Stremme      Chevrolet  251
11.  Cale Gale          Chevrolet  251
12.  Jason Leffler      Toyota     251
13.  Landon Cassill     Chevrolet  251
14.  Mike Wallace       Toyota     251
15.  Marcos Ambrose     Ford       251
16.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  250
17.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet  250
18.  Kelly Bires        Ford       250
19.  James Buescher     Toyota     250
20.  DJ Kennington      Dodge      250
21.  Bobby Hamilton Jr  Ford       250
22.  Scott Wimmer       Chevrolet  249
23.  Marc Davis         Toyota     249
24.  Scott Lagasse Jr   Chevrolet  249
25.  Jason Keller       Ford       249
26.  Derrike Cope       Chevrolet  249
27.  Eric McClure       Chevrolet  248
28.  Brandon Whitt      Ford       248
29.  Ron Young          Chevrolet  246
30.  Mark Green         Chevrolet  245
31.  Brian Keselowski   Dodge      242
32.  Jarit Johnson      Dodge      235
33.  Wheeler Boys       Chevrolet  193
34.  Stanton Barrett    Chevrolet  155
35.  Kevin Hamlin       Dodge      150
36.  Brad Teague        Ford       141
37.  Morgan Shepherd    Dodge      59
38.  Burney Lamar       Ford       49
39.  Kertus Davis       Chevrolet  24
40.  Justin Hobgood     Chevrolet  10
41.  Johnny Sauter      Dodge      9
42.  Danny O'Quinn Jr   Ford       9
43.  Kevin Lepage       Dodge      2