Roush-Fenway Racing driver, two-time Kentucky Speedway race winner and NASCAR Busch Series standings leader Carl Edwards needed an eighth-place finish at Memphis Motorsports Park to clinch his first series title Oct. 27, but wound up with his third consecutive showing outside a race top-10. Edwards finished 25th on three-quarter-mile paved oval track and has posted an average 32nd-place finish in his past three series outings. He surrendered 107 standings markers to second-place driver and Memphis race winner David Reutimann, who captured his first series victory of the season. He has posted two top-five finishes in his past seven races, but cannot realistically threaten Edwards 531-point championship lead with three events remaining on the 2007 schedule.
Veteran Mike Bliss crossed the finish line 0.735 of a second behind Reutimann. Bliss collected his third top-five and eighth top-10 finish season. Roush-Fenway Racing driver David Ragan placed third and held on to the fifth spot in the standings with his fourth top-five and ninth top-10 finish of the season. Australian-born Marcos Ambrose took a series career-high fourth-place finish and Jason Leffler nailed down the fifth spot.
Leffler moved from fourth to third in the series standings with his seventh top-five and 10th top-10 of the season while Ambrose transitioned from ninth to eighth in the standings with his first top-five and fifth top-10 effort this year. The series is back in action Nov. 3 at Texas Motor Speedway. Race coverage will begin at 3:00 p.m., on ESPN2, the Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 128. Roush-Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth won April 14 race at the track that Ragan started from the pole position.
The top 10 drivers in the series standings entering the race are: Edwards (Leader: 4,364 points, Roush-Fenway Racing, Ford), Reutimann (Second: -531, Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota), Jason Leffler (Third: -758, Braun Racing, Toyota), Kevin Harvick (Fourth: -841, Kevin Harvick, Inc., Chevrolet), David Ragan (Fifth: -900, Roush-Fenway Racing, Ford,), Bobby Hamilton, Jr. (Sixth: -1,051, Team Rensi Motorsports, Ford), Stephen Leicht (Seventh: -1,161, Robert Yates Racing, Ford), Marcos Ambrose (Eighth: -1,212, Wood Brothers/ JTG Racing, Ford), Greg Biffle (Ninth: -1,228, Roush-Fenway Racing, Ford), and Mike Wallace (10th: -1,281, Phoenix Racing, Chevrolet).
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