Edwards wins Nationwide at Richmond

Edwards overtook Clint Bowyer with 27 laps remaining and then paced the field, keeping his rivals under control in the last few restarts to claim a crucial victory in his aim of retaining the series' title.

The result allows the Roush Fenway driver to move up to second in the points ahead of Brad Keselowski and 207 points behind Bowyer, who had slim reward in the end after dominating most of the race, finishing third at the chequered flag.

"Clint dominated all night and he was just a little bit free on that last run," Edwards said. "Because of the caution and my guys doing such a great stop I got to him and that's what did it for us today.

"I was driving my guts out there and everybody was. Denny (Hamlin) came up there and he was real fast and Scott Wimmer and everybody. You know, Clint had a great car obviously but he got a little loose at the end and that's just what we needed."

Edwards and Bowyer were two of nine drivers completing Sunday's Richmond double-header following the race postponement that NASCAR was forced to call on Friday due to intense rain forecast in the area, from tropical storm Hanna.

That made the Richard Childress Racing driver's defeat all the more tough to swallow, even if a few hours earlier he had secured the last spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup after a 12th place finish in the 300-mile top-tier event.

"It's a shame," Bowyer said. "We had a good car today. Just got too loose there at the end and I hate to give another one away. But you know, the guys are digging deep here and it was still a good run for us."

His teammate Scott Wimmer actually came second in the end as the best of the Nationwide Series regulars. Denny Hamlin was fourth while David Ragan and Greg Biffle rounded up the top six.

Polesitter Joey Logano couldn't do better than sixth, gaining a few places in the closing laps. Kevin Harvick was eighth followed by a recovering David Stremme who came back from an early incident to score a solid top-ten finish ahead of Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch.

Brad Keselowski's title hopes took another blow as he only managed a 21st place finish, which drops him 279 points behind Bowyer and down to third in the drivers' standing with only seven races remaining.

Pos  Driver               Make        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards         Ford         250
 2.  Scott Wimmer         Chevrolet    250
 3.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet    250
 4.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota       250
 5.  David Ragan          Ford         250
 6.  Greg Biffle          Ford         250
 7.  Joey Logano          Toyota       250
 8.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet    250
 9.  David Stremme        Chevrolet    250
10.  Kyle Busch           Toyota       250
11.  Mike Bliss           Chevrolet    250
12.  Landon Cassill       Chevrolet    250
13.  Marcos Ambrose       Ford         250
14.  Bobby Hamilton Jr    Ford         250
15.  Mike Wallace         Toyota       250
16.  Jason Keller         Chevrolet    250
17.  Steve Wallace        Chevrolet    250
18.  Kenny Wallace        Chevrolet    250
19.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge        250
20.  Kelly Bires          Ford         250
21.  Brad Keselowski      Chevrolet    250
22.  Mark Green           Chevrolet    250
23.  Casey Atwood         Ford         249
24.  Danny O'Quinn Jr     Chevrolet    249
25.  Stanton Barrett      Chevrolet    249
26.  Austin Dillon        Chevrolet    248
27.  D.J. Kennington      Dodge        247
28.  Brandon Whitt        Ford         247
29.  Eric McClure         Chevrolet    247
30.  Jason Leffler        Toyota       247
31.  Derrike Cope         Chevrolet    246
32.  Brad Teague          Chevrolet    240
33.  Andrew Ranger        Dodge        235
34.  David Reutimann      Toyota       234
35.  Josh Wise            Toyota       202
36.  Morgan Shepherd      Dodge        133
37.  Danny Efland         Chevrolet     95
38.  Bryan Clauson        Dodge         94
39.  Burney Lamar         Ford          55
40.  Kenny Hendrick       Chevrolet     32
41.  Justin Hobgood       Chevrolet     22
42.  Kertus Davis         Chevrolet     11
43.  Johnny Chapman       Chevrolet      1