Carl Edwards wins Nationwide race Memphis Motorsports Park is quickly becoming known for providing unique races. Last year there were 25 caution flags, just one shy of the record 26, and this year, the NASCAR Nationwide Series race saw only seven cars on the lead lap at the end of the Kroger 250.
That left little competition for Carl Edwards as he claimed his fifth win of the season and cut 80 points off of Clint Bowyer's lead in the championship standings. He now trails by 116 with three races remaining.
Neither Edwards nor Bowyer had turned a single lap at Memphis prior to the start of the 250-lap race, having flown in from NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition in Atlanta.
The difference between the two was the handling on their machines. Bowyer struggled with a tight condition all race long while Edwards owed thanks to Bobby East for a spot-on setup in his No. 60 Ford. East practiced and qualified in place of Edwards.
Bowyer got into the rear of Marcos Ambrose to bring out the second caution flag of the afternoon. That caution changed the face of the race. Edwards was one of few lead lap cars to pit under the yellow, on Lap 29.
The race had an extended green flag run with Edwards clicking off positions with his fresher tires. On Lap 69, he took the lead in Turn 3.
Just over 30 laps later, the field took part in a green flag round of pit stops. After stops cycled through, Edwards had a 10-second lead over Joey Logano.
As Edwards set sail, Bowyer's troubles continued. On Lap 124, the sour handling on the No. 2 Chevrolet lingered and Bowyer lost control of his machine, spinning in Turn 2.
The time of the caution, just after the cycle of green flag pit stops, left only five cars on the lead lap and not much competition for Edwards. That was, until the closing laps and one last restart.
Last year's race winner, David Reutimann regained his lost lap under a caution flag on Lap 213. He challenged Edwards after a green-white-checkered restart on Lap 251. For the final two laps, Reutimann stayed locked onto Edwards's bumper but was unable to make the move.
Reutimann finished second while Kenny Wallace was third. Austin Dillon, in only his second NASCAR Nationwide race, was fourth, and Logano was fifth.
Bobby Hamilton, Jr. spun in Turn 4 coming to the checkered flag. Hamilton blamed Landon Cassill for the incident and after climbing from his car on pit road, approached Cassil's machine, leaned into the driver's side window and appeared to throw a punch at the young driver.
"I couldn't tell what he said," said Cassill, who finished 13th. "He had his shield down. He was nodding and shaking and nodding and shaking. What happened on the last lap, was just short track beating and banging… It was just hard racing."
Results
FIN
ST
CAR
DRIVER
MAKE
SPONSOR
PTS/BNS
LAPS
STATUS
1
34
60
Carl Edwards
Ford
CitiFinancial
195/10
253
Running
2
3
99
David Reutimann
Toyota
Aaron's Dream Machine
170/0
253
Running
3
10
28
Kenny Wallace
Chevrolet
U.S. Border Patrol
165/0
253
Running
4
18
21
Austin Dillon
Chevrolet
Hardee's / Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma
160/0
253
Running
5
21
9
Chase Miller *
Dodge
Motorola / Verizon Wireless
155/0
253
Running
6
24
20
Joey Logano
Toyota
GameStop
150/0
253
Running
7
5
1
Mike Bliss
Chevrolet
Miccosukee Resort & Gaming
151/5
251
Running
8
17
6
David Ragan
Ford
Discount Tire
142/0
250
Running
9
6
66
Steve Wallace
Chevrolet
5-Hour Energy
138/0
250
Running
10
2
64
David Stremme
Chevrolet
Penske Truck Rental
134/0
250
Running
11
7
33
Cale Gale *
Chevrolet
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
130/0
250
Running
12
9
38
Jason Leffler
Toyota
Great Clips
127/0
250
Running
13
8
5
Landon Cassill *
Chevrolet
Nat'l Guard / 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
124/0
250
Running
14
11
7
Mike Wallace
Toyota
GEICO
121/0
250
Running
15
15
59
Marcos Ambrose
Ford
Kingsford Tailgate at Home
118/0
250
Running
16
32
2
Clint Bowyer
Chevrolet
BB&T
115/0
249
Running
17
12
88
Brad Keselowski
Chevrolet
U.S. Navy
112/0
249
Running
18
25
25
Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Ford
Eckrich
109/0
249
Running
19
26
47
Kelly Bires
Ford
STP / AutoZone
106/0
249
Running
20
1
32
James Buescher
Toyota
Camping World/ RVs.com
108/5
249
Running
21
37
81
D.J. Kennington
Dodge
Joe Michael / St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
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