| MICHIGAN
INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
Sunday,
August 17, 2008 on ESPN
Carl
Edwards Wins CARFAX 250 at MIS
Source:
Michigan International Speedway
PHOTO
CREDIT: MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
BROOKLYN,
Mich. -- If the Summer Olympics ever come up
with a gymnastics event that pits athletes doing back
flips from the side windows of their automobile while
wearing helmets and neck stabilizers, certainly Carl Edwards
would be considered a heavy favorite for the Gold.
Edwards
stuck his patented flip landing on Saturday, the degree
of difficulty enhanced by wearing full gear in celebration
of his victory in the NASCAR Nationwide CARFAX 250 at
Michigan International Speedway.
“We
ran great today,” Edwards said. “There were
a couple of cars that were really fast. Tony (Stewart)
was real fast and Brian Vickers was extremely fast. The
changes my crew made were great and they made our car
real fast for the final run, and Tony was having that
trouble on pit road or whatever happened to him. It was
sure a lot easier to pass him there (in the pits) than
it would have been on the race track. We came out first,
our guys did a great job and it went green the rest of
the way.”
Stewart,
who would finish third behind Vickers, was easily in the
lead, almost eight seconds ahead of second-place Edwards
with 33 laps remaining in the 125-lap event when Nationwide
Points leader Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann came together,
creating a caution.
All
of the leaders pitted. Edwards came out first with Stewart
wheeling out fourth. There was no catching Edwards after
that with Stewart and Vickers battling hard for second.
It
was Edwards’ third Nationwide victory of the year
and first triumph at MIS. He won from the pole position
to become only the second driver to accomplish that feat
at MIS. The other was Jeff Burton in 1998.
The
race ended under caution with the white flag already displayed
to signal one lap remaining when Steve Wallace and Mark
Green spun out.
“It
was a good run, but to be quite honest with you, you don’t
want to come across greedy but at the same time I’m
getting sick and tired of not winning one of these race,”
Vickers said. “I feel like every race that we’ve
been in we’ve led, we just haven’t led at
the right time.”
It
was a bitter-sweet day for Stewart who said he had more
fun than at any time he has raced at MIS over the years,
but was depressed by the fact that it was his last Nationwide
race for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.
“We
had a good day and it’s been fun to run that car
this year,” Stewart added “It’s one
of those days when you’re sad the year is over from
this standpoint but I’m so proud of (crew chief)
Dave Rogers and all those guys. We got in a great battle.
You could get two or three guys together and it got really
racy, and I don’t think I’ve ever been a part
of anything that was that much fun here at Michigan.”
The
victory also moved Edwards into second place in the Nationwide
Series points, just 113 behind leader, Bowyer, who finished
10th.
It
was also the 19th victory for car-owner Jack Roush, including
10 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, five in the Nationwide
Series and four in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Mark
Martin finished fourth, followed by Greg Biffle, Mike
Bliss and young 18-year-old sensation Joey Logano. Logano
was making his MIS debut.
After
the race, Edwards gave his trophy to Eric Wright, grand
marshal of the race and a Make-A-Wish kid.
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