BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Polesitter Kasey Kahne's Dodge was outstanding all night, but Carl Edwards' Ford was just a tick better when it counted.
Edwards inherited the lead for good under caution on Lap 371 after a cycle of green-flag pit stops and stayed out front to win Saturday night's Sharpie 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at newly repaved and rebanked Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards and Kahne ran 1-2 the rest of the way, as Edwards was as dominant in the late stages of the race as Kahne had been early on. With the victory, his second of the season and his first in the Car of Tomorrow, Edwards clinched a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
Kahne led 305 laps before Edwards claimed the point for the final time.
Edwards led the final 130 laps and beat Kahne to the finish line by 1.405 seconds to give Ford its first win with the COT.
"The end of the race took five years off my life," Edwards said. "With all the cautions, I knew there were going to be so many restarts."
Edwards need not have worried. On every restart in the late stages of the race, he was able to distance himself from the rest of the field on a track that featured graduated concrete banking as part of its reconfiguration.
"In the big picture, I consider this a transition race," Edwards said. "You've gone from older-style cars and a track that's been the way it's been or however many years to a new style racetrack. It looks a lot the same, but it sure isn't the same. So you've got a new racetrack and new cars, so I believe it's going to take a while to shake out the field and see which teams excel at this specific kind of track and with these cars."
Clint Bowyer ran third, followed by Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle completed the top 10. Stewart, who also secured a spot in the Chase, leapfrogged past Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth into second in the standings.
"Those guys did a good job," said Kahne, who posted his first top five in the No. 9 Dodge since he ran fourth in last year's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "He (Edwards) was just a little better at the end. My car still felt good, but he was just cutting through the center of the corner a little better than me.
"But it was just exciting to get a good run in our Dodge Avenger. It's been a while since we've had a top five -- last year. It's been a while since we've run up front all night long and had a pole. We kind of put the whole night together. The whole team stepped up and did a really good job."
Ricky Rudd's spin in Turn 1 brought out the eighth caution of the race on Lap 451. The cars of Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, David Gilliland and Juan Pablo Montoya suffered varying degrees of damage in the ensuing wreck. The crash knocked Kenseth out of the race, but the Roush Fenway driver nevertheless clinched a berth in the Chase with his 39th-place finish.
The race was slowed once more -- a caution for debris on Lap 465 -- but the result was the same. Edwards got away from the field on the restart on Lap 470 and stretched his advantage as the laps wound down.
Notes: Hamlin's engine blew on Lap 211, breaking a streak of 53 races without a DNF. It was the second time in Hamlin's career that he has failed to finish a race. . . Kahne's 305 laps led were almost five times the number he had led in the first 23 races of the season -- 66.
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Edwards inherited the lead for good under caution on Lap 371 after a cycle of green-flag pit stops and stayed out front to win Saturday night's Sharpie 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at newly repaved and rebanked Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards and Kahne ran 1-2 the rest of the way, as Edwards was as dominant in the late stages of the race as Kahne had been early on. With the victory, his second of the season and his first in the Car of Tomorrow, Edwards clinched a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
Kahne led 305 laps before Edwards claimed the point for the final time.
Edwards led the final 130 laps and beat Kahne to the finish line by 1.405 seconds to give Ford its first win with the COT.
"The end of the race took five years off my life," Edwards said. "With all the cautions, I knew there were going to be so many restarts."
Edwards need not have worried. On every restart in the late stages of the race, he was able to distance himself from the rest of the field on a track that featured graduated concrete banking as part of its reconfiguration.
"In the big picture, I consider this a transition race," Edwards said. "You've gone from older-style cars and a track that's been the way it's been or however many years to a new style racetrack. It looks a lot the same, but it sure isn't the same. So you've got a new racetrack and new cars, so I believe it's going to take a while to shake out the field and see which teams excel at this specific kind of track and with these cars."
Clint Bowyer ran third, followed by Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle completed the top 10. Stewart, who also secured a spot in the Chase, leapfrogged past Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth into second in the standings.
"Those guys did a good job," said Kahne, who posted his first top five in the No. 9 Dodge since he ran fourth in last year's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "He (Edwards) was just a little better at the end. My car still felt good, but he was just cutting through the center of the corner a little better than me.
"But it was just exciting to get a good run in our Dodge Avenger. It's been a while since we've had a top five -- last year. It's been a while since we've run up front all night long and had a pole. We kind of put the whole night together. The whole team stepped up and did a really good job."
Ricky Rudd's spin in Turn 1 brought out the eighth caution of the race on Lap 451. The cars of Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, David Gilliland and Juan Pablo Montoya suffered varying degrees of damage in the ensuing wreck. The crash knocked Kenseth out of the race, but the Roush Fenway driver nevertheless clinched a berth in the Chase with his 39th-place finish.
The race was slowed once more -- a caution for debris on Lap 465 -- but the result was the same. Edwards got away from the field on the restart on Lap 470 and stretched his advantage as the laps wound down.
Notes: Hamlin's engine blew on Lap 211, breaking a streak of 53 races without a DNF. It was the second time in Hamlin's career that he has failed to finish a race. . . Kahne's 305 laps led were almost five times the number he had led in the first 23 races of the season -- 66.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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