NASCAR: Carl Edwards back on track with Las Vegas victory (+photos)

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Carl Edwards rolled a winner in Las Vegas after a pit stop error cost Tony Stewart a dominant win.

(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Autostock/Ford)

Carl Edwards took the lead, on lap 244 of the 267-race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway , after the final round of pit stops easily holding off Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya.

For Carl Edwards it was a bit of a gift since he was crashed out Phoenix, by Kyle Busch, after having the pole-winning and dominant car last week.

"Yeah it means a lot coming off of Phoenix," Edwards said "I went home last week and I had no clue. I just didn't know how things were going to go from there. You only don't get a good race car like that very often, but we had another one today."

Greg Biffle (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Autostock/Ford)

The key to the race was Stewart’s pit stop penalty on lap 151 for running over a piece of his equipment. That put him back to 24th.

When Tony Stewart took two tires, on the next to last pit stop, that gave him the track position which was the key as clean air was the only place where a driver could get the most out of his car.

Unfortunately other crew chiefs deduced that they needed only two tires on their final pit stop, while Stewart needed four for his last stop and he ran out laps before he could catch and pass Edwards.

A.J. Allmendinger and Matt Kenseth. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Autostock/Ford)