Carl Edwards Captures Second Consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series Win at TMS.
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[/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.
Carl Edwards wins O’Reilly 300 From Pole
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[/media-credit]Carl Edwards dominated the O’Reilly 3oo at the Texas Motor Speedway Friday night holding off a hard charging Brad Keselowski. Keselowski was almost a half second back at the finish.
The only car that gave Edwards a challenge crashed into a car that blew its tire in a bizarre incident. On lap 88, Busch was in Edwards tracks when they went to pass the slower car of the No.52 driven by Tim Schendel. As Edwards went by the car shot up the track and right into Busch’s No.18 car sending it into the wall. From there it was all Edwards
Afterwards Busch said, “It felt like we were probably the only car that was going to give Carl a shot. It’s a shame that we didn’t have the chance to race it out the rest of the night.”
Ricky Stenhouse, with his sixth place finish kept the points lead.
Regan captures the Samsung Mobile 500 pole
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[/media-credit]David Regan captured his first Sprint Cup Series pole on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway with a lap of 189.820 MPH (28.448 secs).
“Momentum is a very powerful thing and we have some momentum on our side. Our UPS Freight car not only looks good but it’s fast this weekend. Drew (Blickensderfer) made a great call to change the setup around a little before this last practice run and it did what it needed to do. Hopefully it can be just as good for 500 miles on Saturday night.” Ragan said.
Despite Roush Fenway having seven victories in 94 starts, this is the first Sprint Cup pole for them.
Carl Edwards qualified second, Clint Bowyer third, Matt Kenseth Fourth and Regan Smith qualified fifth.
“We were so close. That is cool for David though. If we had to be second to anyone in qualifying David would be the guy. Those guys have been working really hard.” Edwards said.
The series points leader Kyle Busch starts 11th.
“It’s a far cry from where we were yesterday, but unfortunately it’s not going to be fast enough today to get us where we want to be, but overall we felt like the Interstate Batteries Camry was really good. We posted a good time. But apparently there are going to be guys that are going to go faster than us. Our draw hurt us a little bit. We weren’t fast yesterday, but we got a lot better today. Looking forward to the race. It’s great to be here in Texas in front of the hometown crowd with Interstate Batteries. I’m pumped about that.” Busch said.
The Samsung Mobile 500 starts at 7:30 p.m. EST on FOX
Qualifying Results
Samsung Mobile 500, Texas Motor Speedway
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Pos. Driver Speed
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1 David Ragan 189.82
2 Carl Edwards 188.521
3 Clint Bowyer 188.232
4 Matt Kenseth 188.199
5 Regan Smith 187.95
6 Jimmie Johnson 187.761
7 Marcos Ambrose 187.656
8 Joey Logano 187.585
9 Greg Biffle 187.552
10 Kurt Busch 187.402
11 Kyle Busch 187.37
12 Jeff Burton 187.35
13 Kasey Kahne 187.234
14 Juan Montoya 187.175
15 A.J. Allmendinger 187.175
16 Ryan Newman 187.045
17 Jamie McMurray 187.045
18 Trevor Bayne 187.02
19 Paul Menard 186.896
20 Michael McDowell 186.838
21 Mark Martin 186.819
22 Casey Mears 186.638
23 Denny Hamlin 186.535
24 Landon Cassill 186.49
25 David Reutimann 186.406
26 Tony Stewart 186.361
27 Brad Keselowski 185.944
28 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 185.938
29 Kevin Harvick 185.918
30 Brian Vickers 185.874
31 Martin Truex Jr. 185.771
32 Jeff Gordon 185.58
33 David Starr 185.58
34 Bobby Labonte 185.516
35 J.J. Yeley 185.293
36 Mike Skinner 185.122
37 Joe Nemechek 184.944
38 Dave Blaney 184.143
39 Robby Gordon 183.617
40 David Gilliland 183.287
41 Ken Schrader+ 181.378
42 Tony Raines+ 179.122
43 Andy Lally* 183.78
Edwards on O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 pole
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[/media-credit]Carl Edwards captured the pole for Friday night’s Nationwide Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway with a lap of 178.938 MPH (30.178 secs) for the third time this season.
Brad Keselowski qualified second, Elliott Sadler third, series points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fourth and Paul Menard qualified fifth.
Qualifying Results
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, Texas Motor Speedway
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Pos. Driver Speed
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1 Carl Edwards 178.938
2 Brad Keselowski 178.743
3 Elliott Sadler 178.554
4 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 178.489
5 Paul Menard 178.3
6 Trevor Bayne 177.86
7 Joey Logano 177.848
8 Kyle Busch 177.55
9 Kasey Kahne 177.096
10 Aric Almirola 176.765
11 Justin Allgaier 176.678
12 Reed Sorenson 176.655
13 Brian Scott 176.586
14 David Reutimann 176.303
15 Jason Leffler 175.787
16 Sam Hornish Jr. 175.439
17 Josh Wise 175.308
18 Michael Annett 175.273
19 David Starr 174.497
20 Blake Koch* 174.323
21 Tim Andrews 173.796
22 Kenny Wallace 173.779
23 Joe Nemechek 173.539
24 Steve Wallace 173.316
25 Scott Wimmer 173.316
26 Carl Long 173.049
27 Shelby Howard 172.861
28 J.J. Yeley 172.828
29 Mike Wallace 172.59
30 Jeremy Clements 172.436
31 Dennis Setzer 172.414
32 Jeff Green 172.035
33 Matthew Carter 171.87
34 Danny O’Quinn Jr. 171.554
35 Kevin Lepage 171.532
36 Mike Bliss 171.456
37 Jennifer Jo Cobb* 171.108
38 Timmy Hill* 170.584
39 Tim Schendel 170.352
40 Derrike Cope 170.234
41 Eric McClure 170.181
42 Robert Richardson Jr. 169.891
43 Brett Rowe 169.364
44 Morgan Shepherd 167.984
