Edwards wins the Zippo 200 at The Glen

[media-credit id=24 align=”alignright” width=”240″][/media-credit]Carl Edwards comes back to the Nationwide Series (NNS) and what does he do? He Wins! Edwards led nine laps in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at The Glen and took over the lead with two laps remaining to earn his 38th career and the first win in 2012.  Edwards also broke a tie for third with Kevin Harvick on the series’ all-time win list.

“This is huge for us. It’s nice to be in victory lane.” Edwards said.

Brad Keselowski led 43 laps and finished second.  Sam Hornish Jr. third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fourth and Ron Fellows rounded out the top-5.

Sam Hornish Jr. started on the pole first the first time in his NASCAR career.

Ryan Truex was going into to turn-1 when he went out of control and spun and collect Danica Patrick.

“I drove in the corner and got wheel-hopped and spun out back in front of everybody. Basically I wheel-hopped and it was either wheel-hop and hope I didn’t run into my teammate in front of me and take out the field, or turn in the grass and spin out and not hit anybody, and I chose the grass. I had no control after that.” Truex said.

Patrick tried to repair the damage in pit road but had to garage.  Patrick finished 43rd.

“I feel so bad. I wish it would have gone differently but that’s the sport. There’s a lot of stuff that is out of your control and there’s a lot of stuff you look back at that you would’ve, could’ve, should’ve done differently. But that’s just racing.” Patrick said.

The first caution came out when the No,19 car of Alex Popow cut a tire and slammed into the guard rail throwing debris everywhere. They had a chance to pit but no came in and they stayed in there position for the time being.

They went back to green on lap 10 with Sam Hornish leading since the green flag. Hornish was under attack from his teammate Brad Keselowski. Keselowski took over the lead two laps later.

Green flag pit stops occurred on lap 19 with Justin Allgaier hitting the pit road. He told his crew that he was tight coming up the hill. They took four tires and had a air pressure adjustment. The No.18 of Joey Logano was loose in but he needs to be more loose off. They also took four tires. Carl Edwards went in and was telling the team he was tight in the carousel and got some air pressure. Kyle Busch and Hornish wrapped up the lead lap green flag pit stops. Busch said he need more grip but otherwise was not that bad. He got four tires and a air pressure. Hornish was reporting a little vibration when he was under braking but other then that  he was okay. He said he was free everywhere especially the right handers.

The only person that has not pitted was the No.87 of Alex Kennedy but on lap 29, Keselowski was much quicker and took over the top spot.

The second caution came out on lap 37 when Kennedy got loose in turns 3 and 4 and slammed into the guard rail. Austin Dillon also spun out to not run into the No.87 car. The top-5 did not stop but Dillon had to pit to change tires due to his spin. Kasey Kahne also came in during the caution. Dillon will start at the tail of the field since he did not stop in inner loop under green.

We restarted the race on lap 43 with Keselowski still leading. It was a crazy restart with all the leaders going three wide.

The final pit stops occurred with 32 laps to go. Elliott Sadler got a air pressure and told the team to pack it full of fuel. He also needed a track bar to help him turn right. Busch came in and need to help turn in the front and the back. He got a air pressure and a track bar. Edwards said the car was great and all they need to do was fill it with fuel and  clean the grill.  Kahne beat everybody off of pit road because he only took fuel due to the previous caution.

While that was happening, Edwards and Logano were racing hard into 7 and spun the No.18 out. Logano told his crew chief to tell the No.60 to “bite him”.

On the other side of the track, Joe Nemecheck was stopped on pit road and the caution was waved. Miguel Paludo and Justin Allgaier did not pit and will be pitting during this caution.