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NNS: Edwards Bests Kyle Busch At Milwaukee
Carl Edwards passed Kyle Busch with 46 laps to go to win on The Milwaukee Mile...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted June 20, 2009   West Allis, WI
Carl Edwards, driving the #60 Save-a-lot Ford, celebrates the win at the NASCAR Nationwide Series NorthernTool.com 250 at the Milwaukee Mile. (Photo:Getty Images)
Carl Edwards, driving the #60 Save-a-lot Ford, wins the NASCAR Nationwide Series NorthernTool.com 250 at the Milwaukee Mile (Photo: Getty Images)

Carl Edwards began Saturday night’s NorthernTool.com 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race in the back of the field alongside Kyle Busch, but neither of them stayed there long.

Edwards passed his fellow Sprint Cup regular Busch with 46 laps to go at The Milwaukee Mile and held on to win his first Nationwide Series race of the year in his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion.

Busch finished second in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ahead of the JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Brad Keselowski, who passed rookie Erik Darnell on the race’s penultimate lap to secure third place. Rick Stenhouse Jr. made it three Roush Fords in the top five with an excellent fifth-place finish.

Both Edwards and Busch flew in Saturday afternoon from Infineon Raceway in Northern California, where they had been practicing for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Because they missed qualifying, both drivers had to start the race from the tail of the grid.

Darnell started from the pole in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and opened up a lead early on ahead of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Brad Coleman. Darnell led 20 of the first 21 laps before surrendering the point to Coleman.

Darnell’s teammate, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. then went out front on Lap 56, trading the lead with Keselowski and his JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

On Lap 125 of the 250-lap race, the first caution of the night came out after Trevor Bayne hit the wall in his Toyota. Busch took over the lead from Keselowski on pit road on Lap 126 and from there, the race appeared to be his.

The second caution flew for debris shortly before green-flag stops were to begin around Lap 200. This time, Busch lead Edwards and Keselowski off pit road.

When the race restarted on Lap 199, Busch was able to build a slight lead on Edwards initially. But Edwards quickly closed on Busch and began pressuring him for the lead.

With 45 laps to go, Edwards took the lead, and just one lap later, Brad Coleman got nerfed by Jason Leffler and sent into the wall, bringing out the third caution of the night.

But cautions tend to breed cautions, and just after the track went green again, Justin Allgaier and Scott Lagasse tangled to bring out the fourth caution with 38 laps left.

The restart came with 34 laps left and from there, Edwards held on easily to win.

NATIONWIDE SERIES DRIVER POINT STANDINGS

NATIONWIDE SERIES RESULTS THE MILWAUKEE MILE

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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