The Nashville 300 was a two-man show Saturday afternoon between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Edwards took the lead for good on lap 191 to win the Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Nashville Superspeedway.
[media-credit name=”Joe Dunn” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Edwards led five times for 148 out of 225 laps to claim his fourth career Nationwide Gibson Guitar along with his second straight NNS victory. With this win, Carl Edwards ties Jack Ingram for fourth in the all-time NASCAR Nationwide Series win list with 31 career wins now in the series.
“It was an unreal race and a lot of fun.” said a relieved Carl Edwards post-race. “Early on in the race, we had a superior car to everybody, but at the end, we were pedaling for all we had. Kyle did a good job making adjustments on his car and gave us a good race. I thought early on in the race we were going to drive off from the field, but the later in the race it got, the harder we had to work for the win.”
Joey Logano led the field to the green flag with a qualifying lap of 157.876 mph at 30.396 seconds and led the first 19 laps, but Carl Edwards took the lead as he and Kyle Busch were the two main cars that were pacing the field. Edwards and Busch would trade the lead a handful of times before Edwards got around Busch for the final time with just over thirty laps to go to claim his second straight Nationwide victory.
Kyle Busch led three times for 39 laps on the afternoon and was forced to settle for second place. “It was a good race for us.” said Busch after the race. “The Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry was fast but not fast enough, and we could only muster a second place finish. We did pretty good and could keep up with Carl, but with the new car, things have kind of flip-flopped. Instead of our car being the car to beat, it’s now the #60 car that’s the car to beat, but all the Roush cars are strong. We just have to get our cars where they need to be.”
Brad Keselowski took home third with Joey Logano fourth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fifth. Sixth through tenth were Trevor Bayne, Austin Dillon, Reed Sorenson, Josh Wise, and Aric Almirola.
“A decent day for our Discount Tire Dodge. You hate to be happy with third-place. It was a good effort. We need to find a little bit more speed. The Roush cars just have more speed and when you put a driver like Carl Edwards in a car like he had today, he’s going to win the race.” Keselowski said.
“We were fourth, I felt like we were a third-place car — it just took us a while to get there. We just fought a lot of different things today.” Logano said.
The new Nationwide points leaders are now Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Justin Allgaier. Two points back in third is Jason Leffler, and Trevor Bayne and Reed Sorenson were two more points back, tied for fourth.
The race had an average speed of 125.375 mph and there were 6 cautions for 25 laps.
Unofficial Race Results
Nashville 300, Nashville Superspeedway
April 23, 2011 – Race 8 of 35
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=8
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Pos. Driver Manufacturer Points
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1- Carl Edwards- Ford- 0
2- Kyle Busch- Toyota- 0
3- Brad Keselowski- Dodge- 0
4- Joey Logano- Toyota- 0
5- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- Ford- 39
6- Trevor Bayne- Ford- 39
7- Austin Dillon- Chevrolet- 0
8- Reed Sorenson- Chevrolet- 36
9- Josh Wise- Chevrolet- 36
10- Aric Almirola- Chevrolet- 35
11- Justin Allgaier- Chevrolet- 33
12- Kenny Wallace- Toyota- 32
13- Elliott Sadler- Chevrolet- 31
14- David Reutimann- Toyota- 0
15- Jason Leffler- Chevrolet- 29
16- Ryan Truex- Toyota- 28
17- Steven Wallace- Toyota- 27
18- Mike Wallace- Chevrolet- 26
19- Michael Annett- Toyota- 25
20- David Stremme- Chevrolet- 0
21- Scott Wimmer- Chevrolet- 23
22- Brian Scott- Toyota- 22
23- Jeremy Clements- Chevrolet- 21
24- Kevin Conway- Toyota- 0
25- Blake Koch- Dodge- 19
26- Danny O’Quinn Jr.- Ford- 18
27- JR Fitzpatrick- Ford- 17
28- Morgan Shepherd- Chevrolet- 16
29- Mikey Kile- Chevrolet- 15
30- Derrike Cope- Dodge- 14
31- Mike Bliss- Chevrolet- 13
32- Eric McClure- Chevrolet- 12
33- Timmy Hill- Ford- 11
34- Robert Richardson Jr.- Dodge- 10
35- Tim Schendel- Chevrolet- 9
36- Tim Andrews- Ford- 8
37- Dennis Setzer- Chevrolet- 7
38- Mike Harmon- Chevrolet- 6
39- Matthew Carter- Chevrolet- 5
40- Carl Long- Ford- 4
41- Willie Allen- Chevrolet- 3
42- Jeff Green- Chevrolet- 2
43- Johnny Chapman- Ford- 1
Unofficial Standings
After Nashville 300, Nashville Superspeedway
April 23, 2011 – Race 8 of 35
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/standings.php
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Pos Driver Points Behind
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1 Justin Allgaier 264 0
2 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 264 0
3 Jason Leffler 262 -2
4 Reed Sorenson 260 -4
5 Trevor Bayne 260 -4
6 Elliott Sadler 259 -5
7 Aric Almirola 257 -7
8 Brian Scott 228 -36
9 Kenny Wallace 216 -48
10 Michael Annett 184 -80
