Carl Edwards held off tenacious Brad Keselowski to win Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The victory was Edwards’ second at Texas, his first of the season, the 30th of his career and the first for the new Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Keselowski crossed the stripe .482 seconds behind Edwards. Paul Menard came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished eighth and retained the series points lead.
Kyle Busch, who was gunning for his third consecutive win and fourth of the season, was chasing Edwards as the two battled for the lead on Lap 88 when the No. 52 Chevrolet of Tim Schendel blew a tire and slid up into Busch’s path. With no room to maneuver and no time to react, Busch slammed into the back of Schendel’s car, knocking Busch’s No. 18 Toyota out of the race.
“We started out a little bit tight, and the track was actually coming our way a little bit,” Busch said. “It started to free up a little bit that last run right before we wrecked. We felt pretty good about it. We were just biding our time. We were just running there—we were running hard, but we were just running.
“It felt like we were probably the only car that was going to give Carl a shot. It’s a shame that we didn’t have the chance to race it out the rest of the night.”
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 60 Carl Edwards Ford 2 22 Brad Keselowski Dodge 3 33 Paul Menard Chevrolet 4 20 Joey Logano Toyota 5 2 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet 6 31 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 7 32 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 8 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 9 99 David Reutimann Toyota 10 11 Brian Scott Toyota 11 38 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 12 88 Aric Almirola Chevrolet 13 16 Trevor Bayne Ford 14 7 Josh Wise Chevrolet 15 30 Jason Leffler Chevrolet 16 12 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 17 66 Steve Wallace Toyota 18 62 Michael Annett Toyota 19 19 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 20 9 Kenny Wallace Toyota 21 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 22 1 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 23 5 David Starr Chevrolet 24 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 25 81 Blake Koch * Dodge 26 23 Robert Richardson Jr. Dodge 27 39 Danny O'Quinn Jr. Ford 28 15 Timmy Hill * Ford 29 141 Jennifer Jo Cobb * Ford 30 70 Shelby Howard Chevrolet 31 14 Eric McClure Chevrolet 32 28 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 33 40 Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 34 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 35 52 Tim Schendel Chevrolet 36 79 Tim Andrews Ford 37 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 38 49 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet 39 24 Kevin Lepage Ford 40 174 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 41 168 Matthew Carter Chevrolet 42 175 Carl Long Ford 43 44 Jeff Green Chevrolet
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