Edwards wins Milwaukee Nationwide

After starting form the back of the field, the former series champion passed Kyle Busch with 45 laps to go and dominated the rest of the event.

Edwards' long journey to his first NASCAR victory of the season started on the west coast of the United States where he practiced his Sprint Cup Series car in preparation for Sunday's race at Sonoma.

Once his Cup duties were over after noon, he flew 1,858 miles to Milwaukee, took a helicopter to the track and jumped in his Nationwide Series car, which had been set up in practice by Colin Braun, who qualified it 11th.

From the back of the pack Edwards drove systematically up to the front until catching Busch, who had also taken the green flag from the rear, having followed a similar journey from California.

On lap 206 the Roush Fenway driver dived up the inside of his title rival and there was little the Joe Gibbs racer was able to do to prevent Edwards from taking the lead and pulling away.

Last year at Milwaukee Edwards took the first of a total seven Nationwide Series victories during the season, something he expects to be able to repeat.

"I'm not going to lie, that felt really good," said Edwards of finally getting his first win of the season and beating the most dominant driver of the year. "It's been a while since we won a race. We started up here last season and it's just almost too good to be true. Hopefully the rest of the season goes like the rest of last season did."

Busch ended up disappointed with second place, despite having a good day in terms of his championship hopes. The 24-year-old claimed the lead for the first time during the first caution period of the day when all the leaders pitted for fuel and tyres.

After that he led for 80 laps, and eventually went on to make it eight consecutive races with the most laps spent at the front of the pack. However he struggled with the balance of his car following his last stop, even dropping down to third behind Edwards' team-mate Erik Darnell.

The pair had a close battle in the closing stages, which Busch was able to resolve in his favour eventually.

"This is just what we do, we come here to finish second," Busch said. "We had no battle today. [Edwards] just drove by me. The car was fine but just not good enough. Unfortunately we didn't win tonight. We'll go on next week."

Darnell not only lost second but also third place in the end, when Brad Keselowski overtook him on the last lap. He had dominated most of the first part of the race after starting from pole and although he looked capable of a better result, a fourth-place finish was still good in what was just his sixth Nationwide Series start.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr was also strong in the third Roush Fenway Ford, leading a total of 49 laps, most of them in the first half of the race. The 21-year-old scored his first top five in just his fourth start in the series.

Edwards' win allowed him to narrow the gap to Busch in the championship just slightly down to 127 points.

Pos  Driver              Car        Laps
 1.  Carl Edwards        Ford       250
 2.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     250
 3.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  250
 4.  Erik Darnell        Ford       250
 5.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr  Ford       250
 6.  Steve Wallace       Chevrolet  250
 7.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet  250
 8.  Stephen Leicht      Chevrolet  250
 9.  Ron Hornaday        Chevrolet  250
10.  Jason Leffler       Toyota     250
11.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet  250
12.  Trevor Bayne        Toyota     249
13.  Brendan Gaughan     Chevrolet  249
14.  Michael McDowell    Toyota     249
15.  Peyton Sellers      Chevrolet  249
16.  Scott Lagasse Jr    Toyota     249
17.  Justin Allgaier     Dodge      249
18.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  249
19.  Bobby Hamilton Jr   Dodge      249
20.  Jason Keller        Ford       248
21.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  248
22.  Burney Lamar        Toyota     248
23.  Shelby Howard       Chevrolet  248
24.  Brad Coleman        Toyota     247
25.  Casey Atwood        Chevrolet  247
26.  Ken Butler III      Chevrolet  247
27.  Danny O'Quinn Jr    Chevrolet  247
28.  Michael Annett      Toyota     246
29.  Travis Kittleson    Chevrolet  245
30.  Brandon Whitt       Ford       245
31.  Brian Keselowski    Dodge      243
32.  Eric McClure        Ford       237
33.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  224
34.  Mike Harmon         Chevrolet  213
35.  Mark Green          Chevrolet  30
36.  Kelly Bires         Toyota     16
37.  JC Stout            Chevrolet  10
38.  Chad Blount         Chevrolet  8
39.  Terry Cook          Chevrolet  5
40.  Derrike Cope        Dodge      4
41.  Dennis Setzer       Dodge      4
42.  Kertus Davis        Chevrolet  3
43.  Johnny Chapman      Chevrolet  2