Carl Edwards

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After a violent wreck on the final lap wiped out a handful of top contenders, Carl Edwards took the checkered flag in Saturday's 5-Hour Energy 200 Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.

The wreck erupted as Edwards was racing Joey Logano after a restart on the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish. Kyle Busch finished second, followed by Reed Sorenson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and David Reutimann. Elliott Sadler finished sixth and took over the points lead in the series standings.

The victory was Edwards' third of the season and the 32nd of his career, good for fourth on the career Nationwide victory list. 

Edwards, who started from the pole as the fastest driver in practice after rain forced the cancellation of qualifying, pulled away from runner-up Logano over the final 13 laps before Michael Annett's wreck on Lap 197 forced the race to overtime.

Carl Edwards leads as Joey Logano (No. 20) collides with Clint Bowyer (No. 33) at the end of the NASCAR Nationwide Series 5-hour Energy 200

Getty Images for NASCAR

At first, Edwards thought he had hit Logano to start the massive Lap 209 wreck that destroyed the cars of Logano and Clint Bowyer, among others.

"Damn it—I didn't mean to hit him," Edwards radioed after the accident. "Is everybody all right?"

Replays showed clearly, however, that Edwards made no contact with Logano as the two raced for the lead. Logano had a lead of almost a car-length before the rear of his car stepped out and he slammed the outside wall. Logano bounced off the wall and into the path of Bowyer, whose Chevrolet careened into the inside wall.

"I'm just glad it worked out," Edwards said after the race. "I'm glad that I didn't hit him. I'm glad that everyone was OK. But that's a product of what we do. When it comes down to it … this racetrack, we're driving so hard here, and there's so much grip, and you're giving everything you can, and the cars are so close there at then end. …

"Obviously, Joey was racing as hard as he possibly could. I was racing as hard as I could. Man, that's why they call it the Monster Mile."

Busch failed in his bid to tie Mark Martin for the career Nationwide wins lead at 49.

Busch's hopes for the record-tying victory suffered a blow during a bizarre chain of events near the midpoint of the race. On Lap 86, Alex Kennedy's Dodge wrecked on the backstretch, bouncing between the outside and inside walls.

After the car came to a stop near the bottom of the track, Kennedy attempted to rejoin the action under caution, but his car didn't turn as expected when Kennedy pulled up on the banking. Instead it rolled straight toward the outside wall and into the path of Kevin Swindell, who was making his Roush Fenway Racing debut in place of sidelined Trevor Bayne.

At nearly the same moment, the nose of Busch's Toyota sustained damage as a line of cars accordioned on the way to pit road. Busch nosed into the No. 20 Toyota of Logano, and Reed Sorenson sustained damaged to his front valance when he ran into the back of Busch's car.
Busch restarted 18th on Lap 101 after his crew taped the nose of the car. He had just passed Jason Leffler for the sixth position when Justin Allgaier, the series points leader entering the race, blew his right front tire and slammed the Turn 3 wall to bring out the sixth caution of the race.

Under orders from crew chief Tony Eury Jr., Josh Wise was the only driver who didn't pit under the yellow and inherited the lead as rain stopped the race.

"We were the last car on the lead lap, so why not stay out and take the gamble?" Wise said during the red-flag period, hoping that rain would end the race at that point.

The gamble didn't work. After the rain stopped, Wise brought his car to the pits under caution and surrendered the lead to Edwards for a restart on Lap 149. But Logano passed Edwards for the top spot on Lap 150 and stayed out front until Edwards overtook him on Lap 187.

Notes: Kennedy and his spotter were summoned to the NASCAR hauler to discuss the mistake in judgment that led to the wreck with Swindell. … The stoppage after Lap 144 lasted 28 minutes 26 seconds. … Allgaier's DNF was his first in 22 races.

Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	1	60	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	0	209	Running
2	13	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	MAC Tools	0	209	Running
3	10	32	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	Dollar General	41/0	209	Running
4	2	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	Mississippi Flood Relief / NASCAR Unites	41/1	209	Running
5	32	164	David Reutimann	Toyota	5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Grape	0	209	Running
6	8	2	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	OneMain Financial	38/0	209	Running
7	14	09	Kenny Wallace	Toyota	G-Oil	37/0	209	Running
8	12	30	James Buescher	Chevrolet	ABF Freight	0	209	Running
9	18	88	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	Degree Men	35/0	209	Running
10	21	01	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	G&K Services	34/0	209	Running
11	9	38	Jason Leffler	Chevrolet	Great Clips	33/0	209	Running
12	6	22	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Ruby Tuesday	0	208	Accident
13	11	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	GameStop	0	208	Accident
14	3	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Rheem Heating, Cooling & Water Heating	0	208	Accident
15	31	14	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	TriStar Motorsports	29/0	208	Accident
16	15	66	Steve Wallace	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	28/0	208	Accident
17	16	7	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	"We Salute You"	28/1	208	Running
18	17	99	Ryan Truex *	Toyota	Pastrana Waltrip Racing	26/0	207	Running
19	20	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	NEMCO Motorsports	25/0	207	Running
20	19	62	Michael Annett	Toyota	Pilot Flying J / 5-Hour Energy	24/0	205	Running
21	35	167	J.R. Fitzpatrick	Ford	Go Canada Racing	23/0	204	Running
22	30	15	Timmy Hill *	Ford	Lilly Trucking of Virginia	22/0	204	Running
23	26	39	Danny Efland	Ford	C3i Sports	21/0	203	Running
24	25	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	Co-ops USA.com / NCB Development Corporation	20/0	202	Running
25	23	19	Eric McClure	Chevrolet	Hefty BlackOut / Reynolds	19/0	201	Running
26	38	89	Morgan Shepherd	Chevrolet	Victory In Jesus	18/0	184	Running
27	28	28	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	Maxelence	17/0	166	Engine
28	29	70	Dennis Setzer	Dodge	All American Sports Pouch	16/0	140	Electrical
29	4	31	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	Wolfpack Rentals	15/0	138	Accident
30	7	11	Brian Scott	Toyota	Shore Lodge	14/0	87	Accident
31	-	21	Tim George Jr.	Chevrolet	Applebee's / Potomac Family Dining Group	13/0	86	Accident
32	24	23	Alex Kennedy	Dodge	St. Baldrick's Foundation / Funny Dan The Race Car Man	0	84	Accident
33	27	81	Donnie Neuenberger	Dodge	Eagle Convenience Stores	11/0	70	Too Slow
34	40	141	Carl Long	Ford	Lilly Trucking of Virginia	11/1	52	Rear Gear
35	22	40	Scott Wimmer	Chevrolet	Key Motorsports	10/1	44	Transmission
36	34	79	Tim Andrews	Ford	Sleep Inn Rehoboth Beach	0	44	Transmission
37	43	113	Jennifer Jo Cobb *	Ford	drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com	7/0	43	Axle
38	36	52	Kevin Lepage	Chevrolet	TRX Alliance	6/0	19	Accident
39	41	0	Brad Teague	Chevrolet	G&K Services	0	10	Engine
40	39	55	Brett Rowe	Chevrolet	Salvation Army / Imperial Bedding Company	4/0	7	Handling
41	37	44	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	TriStar Motorsports	3/0	6	Vibration
42	42	104	Charles Lewandoski *	Ford	Go Green Racing	2/0	4	Ignition
43	33	182	Blake Koch *	Dodge	Daystar.com	1/0	1	Accident

* Denotes Rookie