Carl Edwards overcame a pit equipment penalty to win from the pole at the Atlanta Motor Speedway NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday evening.
It was Edwards’ sixth Nationwide win of the year and 35th of his career. Driving a Ford Mustang, he beat Kyle Busch’s Toyota by .697 seconds. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Edwards’ Roush Fenway teammate, finished third.
“I can’t believe we got both the pole and the win,” Edwards said. “That was one heck of a race. That was as hard as we could race out there. It was a lot of fun. This track is as good as it gets. I can’t wait until tomorrow (for Sunday night’s Sprint Cup race).”
Kevin Harvick was fourth and Kasey Kahne – pole sitter for Sunday night’s Sprint Cup race – was fifth.
Edwards led the first 43 laps until NASCAR officials called a stop-and-go penalty, for leaving his pits with an air hose still attached, which put him at the back of the field. But he and his car were so good it didn’t change the final outcome.
“About the air hose, luckily there was only about 14 cars on the lead lap, so I knew that we had plenty of time to make it up if things went our way,” said Edwards.
Busch, who led six times for 31 laps, said “it certainly was an exciting race there for a little while on restarts,” Busch said. “You would run back and forth and dive bomb guys and get on their outside, their inside and once it kind of single files out then it’s tough to go.”
Edwards led 101 laps of the 195-lap race around the 1.5 mile high speed oval.
Stenhouse extended his series’ point lead to 13 over the Chevrolet of Elliott Sadler who finished tenth. Reed Sorenson’s title hopes took a turn south, with 25 laps to go, when he was wrecked by his own teammate, Justin Allgaier, who was very apologetic after the race. Sorenson finished 32nd.
It was Edwards’ sixth Nationwide win of the year and 35th of his career. Driving a Ford Mustang, he beat Kyle Busch’s Toyota by .697 seconds. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Edwards’ Roush Fenway teammate, finished third.
“I can’t believe we got both the pole and the win,” Edwards said. “That was one heck of a race. That was as hard as we could race out there. It was a lot of fun. This track is as good as it gets. I can’t wait until tomorrow (for Sunday night’s Sprint Cup race).”
Kevin Harvick was fourth and Kasey Kahne – pole sitter for Sunday night’s Sprint Cup race – was fifth.
Edwards led the first 43 laps until NASCAR officials called a stop-and-go penalty, for leaving his pits with an air hose still attached, which put him at the back of the field. But he and his car were so good it didn’t change the final outcome.
“About the air hose, luckily there was only about 14 cars on the lead lap, so I knew that we had plenty of time to make it up if things went our way,” said Edwards.
Busch, who led six times for 31 laps, said “it certainly was an exciting race there for a little while on restarts,” Busch said. “You would run back and forth and dive bomb guys and get on their outside, their inside and once it kind of single files out then it’s tough to go.”
Edwards led 101 laps of the 195-lap race around the 1.5 mile high speed oval.
Stenhouse extended his series’ point lead to 13 over the Chevrolet of Elliott Sadler who finished tenth. Reed Sorenson’s title hopes took a turn south, with 25 laps to go, when he was wrecked by his own teammate, Justin Allgaier, who was very apologetic after the race. Sorenson finished 32nd.