Edwards Wins Kroger 200 At ORP
- Updated: July 25, 2009
Clermont, Ind., July 25 – The season long battle between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Nationwide Series continued Saturday night at O’Reilly Raceway Park as Edwards wrestled the lead away from Busch late in the event and drove to victory in the Kroger 200.
Edwards, who started at the back of the field when his Sprint Cup duties forced him to miss qualifying, charged forward to take the lead from Busch on lap 121, only to give it back on pit road with 30-laps to go when Edwards was blocked in by another car. When racing resumed, Edwards stalked Busch before diving hard into the first corner and maintaining momentum alongside Busch while exiting turn two on lap 179. Edwards’ Ford gripped better than Busch’s Toyota in turn three and he cleared Busch for the lead in turn four. Once out front, Edwards gradually pulled away and cruised to the victory, his second in the Nationwide Series this season.
“Kyle (Busch) got ahead of us when they had a good stop, “Edwards stated afterwards, “Then the race was on.” “It was a good battle and a lot of fun. That was hard, hard racing.”
Busch also started in the back and like Edwards, worked his way forward to lead twice for 31 laps but was unable to hold off Edwards in the late stages and had to settle for second, the eighth race in a row he has finished either first or second, placing him between legendary drivers Jack Ingram and Sam Ard in the record books under that category.
“It was a tough hard fought battle, “Busch said, describing the close-quarters racing prevalent when the large Nationwide Series cars compete on the short tracks such as O’Reilly Raceway Park. “We had what we had and gave it all we could. We just came up short.”
Matt Kenseth also started deep in the field and had a strong car all night before taking the checkered flag in third as NASCAR Sprint Cup regulars swept the top three positions. Brad Keselowski’s last lap charge for third came up just short at the line, leaving him with a fourth place finish while Steve Wallace turned in one of his best performances of the season with a fifth place result. Ron Hornaday, who captured his fourth consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win the night before, led for 14 laps early and finished in sixth place. Trevor Bayne turned some heads in qualifying by capturing his first career pole position and the 18-year old battled hard all night to finish in seventh while Jason Leffler took the checkered flag in eighth. Scott Wimmer paced the field for 38 laps just before the halfway mark and crossed the finish line in ninth and Kenny Wallace earned his first top ten finish of the season with his tenth place result.
The Kroger 200 was slowed a total of six times under the caution flag with eight lead changes among six drivers. With the victory, Edwards gained ten points on Busch in the battle for the Nationwide Series championship and now trails by 192 points with 15 races to go.