Edwards wins Nationwide at Phoenix

Edwards claimed the lead on lap 124 thanks to a quick pitstop from his Roush Fenway crew when all the leaders pitted under caution. From then on, he was followed by Kevin Harvick but never really challenged until the green-white-chequered finish where Denny Hamlin closed on him following a pitstop for new tyres during the last caution.

His win and his full score thanks to leading the most laps allowed Edwards to close in on points leader Clint Bowyer, who had a dramatic afternoon but still managed to finish in the top five. However the gap separating the pair has been almost cut by half, as Edwards is now just 57 points behind the Richard Childress Racing driver.

"The difference for us was that pitstop," Edwards said about his race. "But the real difference was the extra lap (of race distance) under the caution and the green-white-chequered finish. Denny had us, he had those new Goodyears and he had us.

"Staying out on the last caution was the right call. But by one position, Kevin or one of the guys behind us, if one more of them had taken tyres it would've been the wrong call for us. But (crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) knows his stuff. He's a smart guy."

"Anything can happen now. I like Miami, it's a fun racetrack, our car has run well there and man, you never know."

Bowyer finished fourth after pitting for new tyres from fifth on the last caution with only six laps remaining. Despite losing a good chunk of his points lead to Edwards he could breathe a sigh of relief as things looked far worse for him earlier in the race.

On a restart on lap 79 Bowyer ran into the back of David Ragan's Roush Fenway Ford while the pair were running sixth and seventh. Bowyer dropped down the order as he had to pit for repairs to the front end of his car but with a less than perfect machine he was still able to recover from losing nearly all his gap to Edwards in the championship at one point.

"It was a hell of a roller coaster," Bowyer said. "The guys did a good job. They never give up and that's how you win championships. Man I tell you, I thought our championship run was done right there.

"I don't know what was going on in the restarts. It was two (incidents) right there. Our car was really tight after that and I had to pull all the tape off. I was worried when that (last) caution came out because I thought we were going to fall back but you know, hindsight it was a good run for us, so real proud."

Denny Hamlin led early on but his team fitted the wrong set of tyres to the No. 18 Gibbs Toyota at their first pitstop, forcing him to pit again to fix the issue. The mistake cost them the lead, which they were unable to recover, although they still got second place making the most of a new set of tyres he got during the last caution.

Harvick led the race for 53 laps but ended up third after staying out like Edwards on the last caution, caused by Marcos Ambrose hitting the wall. Joey Logano also stayed out and was third on the final restart but he hit the wall on the last lap and finished tenth in the end.

Kyle Busch was fifth driving for Braun Racing, while Landon Cassill impressed with a sixth place finish for JR Motorsports. AJ Allmendinger was twelfth on his return to the Nationwide Series, driving the No. 9 car for Gillett Evernham Motorports.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards          Ford        201
 2.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota      201
 3.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet   201
 4.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet   201
 5.  Kyle Busch            Toyota      201
 6.  Landon Cassill        Chevrolet   201
 7.  Jamie McMurray        Ford        201
 8.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet   201
 9.  Mike Wallace          Toyota      201
10.  Joey Logano           Toyota      201
11.  Justin Allgaier       Dodge       200
12.  A.J. Allmendinger     Dodge       200
13.  Jason Keller          Ford        200
14.  Scott Lagasse Jr      Chevrolet   200
15.  David Ragan           Ford        200
16.  Kenny Wallace         Chevrolet   200
17.  Bryan Clauson         Dodge       200
18.  Kelly Bires           Ford        200
19.  Bobby Hamilton Jr     Ford        200
20.  Scott Wimmer          Chevrolet   200
21.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet   199
22.  D.J. Kennington       Dodge       199
23.  Josh Wise             Toyota      199
24.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford        199
25.  Jason Leffler         Toyota      198
26.  Stanton Barrett       Chevrolet   198
27.  Marc Davis            Dodge       198
28.  John Borneman III     Ford        198
29.  Patrick Sheltra       Dodge       198
30.  Brandon Whitt         Ford        198
31.  David Reutimann       Toyota      197
32.  Eric McClure          Chevrolet   197
33.  Steve Wallace         Chevrolet   193
34.  Brian Ickler          Dodge       184
35.  David Stremme         Chevrolet   177
36.  Larry Gunselman       Chevrolet   135
37.  Burney Lamar          Ford         66
38.  John Wes Townley      Ford         62
39.  Scott Gaylord         Chevrolet    50
40.  Terry Cook            Chevrolet     9
41.  Justin Hobgood        Chevrolet     8
42.  Kertus Davis          Chevrolet     6
43.  Danny O'Quinn Jr      Ford          5