Carl Edwards passed Jason Leffler with 48 laps left Saturday night and cruised to victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Saturday night at Madison, Ill.
It was Edwards’ second win at Gateway International Raceway in three years and it came in front of a mostly hometown crowd. Edwards grew up in Columbia, Mo., about a two-hour drive from the track.
Joey Logano, the 18-year-old phenom in just his fifth race, finished second. Jason Kelley took third, followed by Jason Leffler and London Cassill.
Edwards took his second victory on the Nationwide circuit in 22 starts. He has nine top-five finishes and 11 in the top 10. Edwards took advantage of the sixth caution of the 200-lap race. He got four tires and filled his tank, coming out of the pits third. He quickly overtook Leffler and James Buescher.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to drive that truck to victory lane in Kansas and two wins here in the Nationwide Series,” Edwards said. “There won’t be a guy tomorrow having a better day than me. This is unbelievable.”
Edwards also won at Gateway in 2006. He joins Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick and Reed Sorenson as repeat winners at the 1.25-mile track.
Pole sitter Jamie McMurray led the first 22 laps before making a stop during a caution. NASCAR planned a competition caution on Lap 21 since rain earlier in the day affected the track.
Joey Logano moved up three positions when he exited pit road the quickest during the first round of stops. Morgan Shepherd did not pit and led the field for the restart, but Logano quickly moved to the outside of Shepherd and grabbed the lead for the first time.
Logano ran out in front for 23 circuits before David Reutimann came on strong and passed Logano for the top spot on Lap 50. Reutimann then built a 3.4- second lead 12 laps later. However, Reutimann’s lead was erased when the second caution came for an incident involving Kelly Bires.
“When you’ve got it, you’ve got it,” Logan said. “And (Edwards’ team) hit it dead on tonight. It was showing pretty much the whole race. My car wasn’t horrible. It was pretty good, but Carl’s car was remarkable.”
Landon Cassill, who finished sixth, started a five-car accident that brought out a red flag with 84 laps left. He sent Scott Wimmer into the wall with a tap to the driver’s side back bumper, causing a chain reaction that knocked out Wimmer, Mike Bliss, last-year’s winner Reed Sorenson and Steve Wallace.
The cars remained under red for nearly 30 minutes as the track was cleaned before driving resumed under caution for five laps with pole-winner Jamie McMurray in the lead.
“When you’ve got a guy who doesn’t want to get passed and a guy who wants to pass, it gets tough,” Cassill said. “I was just right on (Wimmer), but it’s just hard to give up track position. I saw him bobble and as soon as he bobbled, it was too late. I just nudged him.”
Officials called a competition caution on Lap 22 to practice going through the procedure without the caution lights. The caution was lifted on Lap 25 and all the power was restored almost immediately after the green flag was waved.
However, the caution lights went blank for a second time. That brought out another competition caution on Lap 72.
McMurray, who earned the pole with a speed of 133.101 during qualifying, left the race with engine problems after completing 152 laps. It marked the 11th time in 12 events at Gateway that the pole-sitter failed to win. Martin Truex Jr.‘s victory in 2004 was the only time the top qualifier has won at Gateway.
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