Leicht takes maiden Busch win

Twenty-year-old Leicht profited from Carl Edwards' misfortunes when he crashed out of the lead with 40 laps remaining, and then chased Brad Coleman and overtook him with 12 laps to go to take victory.

"Those were the longest 20 laps I've ever ran in my life," Leicht said about the closing stages of the race. "I think [this victory] relieves a lot of pressure, you know, because they say the first win is the hardest win. Once you get the first one out of the way, they come easier."

Coleman thought he had victory at reach after Edwards crashed and initially succeeded at keeping Richard Childress driver Scott Wimmer behind, but unfortunately for the Joe Gibbs driver he could not do the same with the charging Leicht.

"I really thought we had that win there with 20 laps to go," said the 19-year-old. "Scott kept getting under me and it kept getting me real nervous but we were able to hold him off and once I started pulling away from him I though we were good.

"But then I hear that Stephen Leicht was running that high side, so nothing I could do about that. He passed me and pulled away."

Wimmer eventually finished third ahead of Chip Ganassi's David Stremme - who picked up five extra points for leading a couple of laps - and JR Motorsports' Shane Huffman who completed the top five.

Points leader Carl Edwards looked set for another victory but his chances vanished when he made contact with Steven Wallace, who was trying to overtake him on the outside during a restart on lap 156.

Before that, Edwards had led 96 laps and held a massive lead of more than 10 seconds up front, but a debris caution came out completely changed his race. However, he blamed no-one else but himself for the clash with Wallace, which forced him to go to his garage for repairs.

"He got a run and turned down on me a little bit and I turned down on him trying to make it a little hard on him," Edwards said after finishing the race 33rd and 11 laps down. "If I wouldn't have tried to block, we wouldn't have wrecked."

But while Edwards was the man to watch for most of the night, it was polesitter Regan Smith who showed the way in the early stages leading the first 20 laps of the race.

He then momentarily lost the lead to Edwards in the pits but then led again a further 25 laps until he ran out of fuel. Once he made it to his pitbox for gas, he was unable to get his car restarted quickly, falling two laps down and out of contention for victory.

The Busch Series standings remain mostly unchanged at the front, although Dave Blaney has moved into second after finishing 15th and Kevin Harvick deciding to stay at Michigan.

In fact, Edwards has extended his lead despite his bad result, now holding a 701-point advantage over Blaney.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Stephen Leicht          Ford         200
 2.  Brad Coleman            Chevrolet    200
 3.  Scott Wimmer            Chevrolet    200
 4.  David Stremme           Dodge        200
 5.  Shane Huffman           Chevrolet    200
 6.  Aric Almirola           Chevrolet    200
 7.  Kelly Bires             Ford         200
 8.  David Ragan             Ford         200
 9.  Mike Bliss              Dodge        200
10.  Greg Biffle             Ford         200
11.  Marcos Ambrose          Ford         200
12.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    200
13.  Cale Gale               Chevrolet    200
14.  Jason Leffler           Toyota       200
15.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       200
16.  David Reutimann         Toyota       200
17.  Timothy Peters          Chevrolet    200
18.  Chase Miller            Dodge        200
19.  Regan Smith             Chevrolet    200
20.  Jason Keller            Ford         200
21.  Kevin Hamlin            Dodge        200
22.  Steve Wallace           Dodge        200
23.  Todd Kluever            Ford         198
24.  Brent Sherman           Chevrolet    197
25.  Mike Wallace            Chevrolet    197
26.  David Green             Toyota       197
27.  Shelby Howard           Chevrolet    197
28.  Richard Johns           Ford         197
29.  Kyle Krisiloff          Ford         196
30.  Kertus Davis            Chevrolet    196
31.  Justin Diercks          Chevrolet    193
32.  Eric McClure            Chevrolet    193
33.  Carl Edwards            Ford         179
34.  Robert Richardson II    Chevrolet    168
35.  Chris Horn              Chevrolet    105
36.  Bobby Hamilton Jr       Ford          97
37.  A J Frank               Chevrolet     95
38.  Danny O'Quinn Jr        Ford          88
39.  Brett Rowe              Chevrolet     48
40.  Jamie Mosley            Ford          30
41.  Mike Harmon             Chevrolet     19
42.  Morgan Shepherd         Dodge          4
43.  Carlos Contreras        Dodge          3