Carl Edwards charged from the rear of the field and passed Kyle Busch in the closing laps to win Saturday’s Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Edwards had to start from the back since Colin Braun qualified his car while Edwards participated in final Sprint Cup Series practice at nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A rain-delayed qualifying session at IMS earlier in the day altered the Sprint Cup track schedule, forcing Edwards, Busch, Matt Kenseth and David Reutimann to start the 200-lap race at ORP from the rear. MiamiHerald.com
Edwards moved up 15 spots by the end of the fourth lap, and took the lead for good in lap 179.
“I definitely like starting in the back,” he said. “It would be fine with me if we qualified for points and inverted the field every week. I think that would be a lot more exciting racing. It’s fun when you’ve got fast cars starting in the back. I know the crowd likes it, especially for these short races.”
Kyle Busch, who started 41st and qualified because of owner points, finished second.
Busch leads Edwards by 192 points in the Nationwide standings. Edwards knows he can’t make many mistakes if he is to catch up. Busch has finished in first or second in every race since a June 6 victory in Nashville.
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park - Race Results
“I believe that 18 team has run first or second for the last couple months,” Edwards said. “They have not slipped. For us to be able to beat them, we have to pretty much run first every week.” The Associated Press
“It was a tough, hard-fought battle,” Busch said of his race with Edwards. “We had what we had and we gave it all we could and we came up short. He was better than us all night, and he proved it driving by us on the run before and just getting to my inside all of the time. If my car was as good as his, I should’ve been able to stay ahead of him or drive away.”
Busch lost 10 points off his championship lead and is 192 points ahead of second-place Edwards with 15 races remaining.
Matt Kenseth was third as full-time Cup competitors swept the top-three positions. Brad Keselowski finished fourth, with Steve Wallace fifth.
Ron Hornaday, who won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at ORP, finished sixth. Pole-sitter Trevor Bayne, Jason Leffler, Wimmer and Kenny Wallace completed the top 10. NASCAR
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