[media-credit name=”Steven Isles ” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Fort Worth, Texas- Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 60 Fastenal Ford captures his second consecutive NNS race at TMS. This marks Edwards’ first win of 2011 season and the fifth top-10 finish. Edwards led 169 of the 200 laps in Friday nights O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, just 10 laps shy of Kyle Busch’s record.
Brad Keslowski finished the night second, posting his seventh top-10 finish in ten races at TMS and his fourth top-10 finish in 2011.
Paul Menard finished third, posting his sixth top-10 finish in ten races. Blake Koch was the highest finishing rookie in 25th.
Ricky Stebhouse Jr. leads the series point standings by 14 points over Jason Leffler.
This is the first victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the Mustang. Each manufacturer had a finish among the top four tonight.
“That was big,” said Edwards. “Just an unreal race; the car was fast. The first win for the Mustang and the first win for Fastenal this season, they have come on board and been a great partner and I’ve had a lot of fun with them. It was a great effort by this team. We still have space on this car, so if anyone wants to market with a great company and a great team, we have space available.”
There were five leaders tonight, Edwards led four times for 169 laps, Keslowski led one time for 16 laps, Annet led one time for eight laps, Stenhouse Jr. led one time for five laps, and Scott led one time for two laps. There were three cautions, the first came on lap 69 from Robert Richardson Jr., second came on lap 89 and involving the 18 of Kyle Busch sending him behind the wall, and the 52 Tim Schendel in turn 2, the final caution of the night came on lap 124 with fluid on the track.
I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I thought the Nationwide race was great, although, as a Ford fan first, then a fan of Jack Roush, then a fan of Edwards makes my comment prejudice! Still, it was better than having Busch-the-younger, or even worse, Kesolowski, win. The only way it could have been better would be if Stenhouse won.