Training for back-to-back NASCAR weekend races hardly seemed to faze Carl Edwards on Saturday.
The 30-year-old NASCAR driver claimed one championship when he sprinted into the lead in the 41st lap on the way to winning the Bucyrus 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Road America.
With only a Thursday practice session under his belt, Edwards proved a quick learner as he claimed the pole position Saturday morning. Driving a Ford, he then led in 35 of 50 laps in inaugural NASCAR Nationwide event at the historic Elkhart Lake road track.
“This track to me is pretty tough,” said Edwards, who was in California on Friday for Sonoma qualifying and returned to Wisconsin late. “It’s a long track; there’s a lot going on. All the curves and bumps are different. I thought about it a lot coming back on the airplane.
“It’s real easy to have mental lapse on a track like this, (but) to me it was a good mental challenge.”
It was also a nerve-wracking finale as Edwards worked to hold off Jacques Villeneuve, who was on the winner’s tail in eight of the final nine laps. Chicago Tribune
Keselowski, who came into Saturday’s race leading the series points standings, finished fourth.
The race was filled with several long delays to clean up accidents, including a red flag period lasting more than half an hour after a nine-car pileup just past the race’s halfway point.
It was a rough race for Justin Allgaier, who came into Saturday third in the Nationwide series points standings.
Allgaier ran off the track on the second lap of the race, coming to a stop on the hill between Turns 5 and 6. He couldn’t get the car moving again and had to be towed back to the garage. Allgaier eventually re-entered the race and finished 35th.
In all, it was a mixed debut for the Nationwide series at the picturesque, fast and technically challenging 14-turn road course that winds through the tree-lined hills of central Wisconsin. NASCAR
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NASCAR Nationwide Series: Bucyrus 200 at Road America - Race-Results
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