Edwards wins Nationwide at Michigan

Edwards had started the race from pole after being also dominant in Friday practice and faced tough opposition in the early going mainly from the Toyota's of Brian Vickers and Tony Stewart.

Came the last pitstop under caution due to David crashing hard against the wall, Edwards jumped Stewart in the pits after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had a slow stop and dropped down to third.

On the final restart, following the fifth caution of the day for a spinning Patrick Carpentier, the Roush Fenway driver pulled away from Vickers and Stewart and then crossed the line up front under caution to claim his third win of the season.

"We got really, really fortunate that Tony Stewart had his trouble on pit road," said Edwards who also led the most laps. "They don't slip up very often and he was really fast. I was really happy that he wasn't right on my rear bumper or I didn't have to pass him for the last run."

Edwards' win was not without drama as at one point he had some debris stuck in front of his car's grill, causing the water temperature to raise high enough to be a cause of concern for him.

"Hopefully it was a Peanut wrapper but I don't know what it was," said Edwards jokingly as Planters peanuts sponsored him this weekend. "It made me real nervous. Tony was doing everything he could to stay in front of me.

"I just needed to be right on his rear bumper but luckily Kenny Wallace let me run all over his back bumper and get that debris off."

Vickers, who starts Sunday's Sprint Cup series race from pole, looked capable of keeping the field at bay at one point but didn't have enough pace to contend with Edwards in the end. Instead he had a nice battle for second with Stewart, Greg Biffle and veteran Mark Martin, which he eventually won.

"We had a great car on the long runs and had a decent one at the start," said Vickers. "The problem at the start with new tyres you just about had to run the bottom and running there the 60 (Edwards) seemed like he had a little bit more motor obviously with the new restrictor plate on that NASCAR gave us in.

"It definitely hurt us in the short run. On old tyres where handling was more important, we could move up to the top, let the engine keep it wound up. I felt like we had something for them but just ran out of time and Carl got to far away on the last run."

Tony Stewart was just able to hold on to third under massive pressure from Martin, while making his final race for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide series this season. Biffle rounded up the top-five behind them.

"We had pretty sane day, we stayed in the top-three there and Carl and Brian got away from the field and pretty much gave me the indication that was going to the match there at the end," said Stewart.

"I got us a little to tight there in the center at the end and lost a little bit of track position. I just couldn't get the car to turn like we had it earlier in the day. It's my fault."

Mike Bliss came home sixth as the best Nationwide series regular, followed by rookie Joey Logano. Jason Leffler, Kelly Bires and points' leader Bowyer rounded up the top ten finishers.

Bowyer was criticized by Reutimann following their coming together out of turn four on lap 90. The contact caused damage to the latter's left front fender, which rubbed against the tyre until blowing up, sending him into the wall.

Dario Franchitti was the top rookie finisher in thirteenth, right behind Watkins Glen winner Marcos Ambrose. The Scot ended up slightly disappointed as he had a solid race for most of the distance but lost the right balance on his car after he made his last stop.

"A little disappointed," Franchitti said. "The car was definitely a top-10 car right up until we put that last set of tires on and it just got tight for some reason. That was disappointing because it was a good car today. It was better on the short runs than the long runs. We'll take it and go on to Bristol next week. I'd like a top-10 today, though."

Following his win Edwards has now moved up to second in the standings, 113 points behind Bowyer and 19 in front of Brad Keselowski.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards            Ford        125
 2.  Brian Vickers           Toyota      125
 3.  Tony Stewart            Toyota      125
 4.  Mark Martin             Chevrolet   125
 5.  Greg Biffle             Ford        125
 6.  Mike Bliss              Chevrolet   125
 7.  Joey Logano             Toyota      125
 8.  Jason Leffler           Toyota      125
 9.  Kelly Bires             Ford        125
10.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet   125
11.  Brad Keselowski         Chevrolet   125
12.  Marcos Ambrose          Ford        125
13.  Dario Franchitti        Dodge       125
14.  Josh Wise               Dodge       125
15.  Mike Wallace            Toyota      125
16.  David Stremme           Chevrolet   125
17.  Jason Keller            Chevrolet   125
18.  Bobby Hamilton Jr       Ford        125
19.  Cale Gale               Chevrolet   124
20.  David Gilliland         Ford        124
21.  Stanton Barrett         Chevrolet   124
22.  Scott Wimmer            Chevrolet   124
23.  Mark Green              Chevrolet   124
24.  Brian Keselowski        Dodge       124
25.  Derrike Cope            Chevrolet   122
26.  Morgan Shepherd         Dodge       122
27.  Eric McClure            Chevrolet   122
28.  Danny Efland            Chevrolet   121
29.  DJ Kennington           Dodge       121
30.  Kenny Wallace           Chevrolet   121
31.  Donnie Neuenberger      Chevrolet   120
32.  Brandon Whitt           Ford        117
33.  Patrick Carpentier      Dodge        98
34.  David Reutimann         Toyota       98
35.  Robert Richardson Jr    Chevrolet    57
36.  David Ragan             Ford         51
37.  Burney Lamar            Ford         40
38.  Steve Wallace           Chevrolet    40
39.  Johnny Chapman          Chevrolet    19
40.  Justin Hobgood          Chevrolet    15
41.  Kevin Lepage            Dodge        14
42.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    11
43.  Kenny Hendrick          Chevrolet     1