Edwards Wins Michigan NASCAR Race

Edwards win gave Roush a sweep of the three races at MIS this weekend.

Edwards performed his first back flip in NEXTEL Cup 52 races. Photo: MIS

BROOKLYN, Mich. - When you come to play in Jack Roush's backyard you better bring all your best toys because the longtime owner put another car in Gatorade Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday in the Citizens Bank 400.

Remember that Roush is from nearby Livonia, Mich. and has now won a total of 15 NASCAR races at MIS, including nine NEXTEL Cup races and three races each in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series.

Increase those totals by one following Carl Edwards’ victory on Sunday, marking his first triumph in 52 races and only the second Ford triumph this season in NEXTEL Cup competition.

That gave Roush a sweep of the three races at MIS this weekend.

His driver Travis Kvapil won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at MIS on Saturday and Erik Darnell, another Roush driver, captured the ARCA RE/MAX Series Michigan 200 on Friday.

Ford’s only other win this season was by Matt Kenseth at California Speedway. Chevrolet has dominated the series in all other events in 2007.

Kenseth, who had completed every lap this season, didn’t complete very many at MIS.

He was involved in a wreck just 78 laps into the 200-lap, 400-mile race and finished 42nd.

That’s about where Tony Stewart started.

He was involved in a wreck with David Gilliland during Happy Hour on Saturday.

Stewart’s team had to make repairs to his car and it was forced to start 41st in the 43-car field.

Everything considered, Stewart was happy with a third-place finish.

It established the record for the greatest improvement from a starting position.

The previous record was held by Jimmy Spencer in the June 1996 race at 36 places (40th to 4th).

"It’s nice to win and get those extra 10 points toward the Chase," Stewart said. “The most important thing now is to be consistent more than winning a race here and there. The while we dug ourselves into Friday and the 38 car helped us with yesterday that put us two strikes down and starting the race today from the back. You can look at it and say we didn’t win today, or you can say we crossed the start-finish 43rd when we took the green and passed 40 cars to wind up with a top three finish. I choose to look at the positive say and say we rebounded we overcame a lot of adversity this weekend to finish third.”

Edwards took the lead for good on lap 166 and held off a fast-closing Martin Truex, Jr., toward the end.

Truex had gotten to within 1 ½ seconds of Edwards with 15 laps remaining after being behind by over eight seconds, but then started to back off, eventually losing by 3.7 seconds.

“If I would have lost that race it would have been like losing one of my arms,” Edwards said. “I have to hand it to Martin Truex. He’s brave to be running so high. He taught me something here today.”

For Truex it was his third top-three finish in the last three races.

“I had a really good race car,” he said. “I hit the wall when I got to about within about 10 car-lengths of him and then hit the wall. I actually ran into the wall and pushed my right front tire in a little bit. It got even worse. From there it was just try to save gas and make it to the end. We were definitely faster than him for a while. We were both running the same line, right up against the wall. Once I got about eight or 10 cars from him I got really tight and that was kind of unfortunate, but it was a great day for us. Carl hadn’t had won in quite a while so I’m sure he’s real happy.”

Citizens Bank 400 Race Results

Fin Str Car Driver Team/Car Laps Pts Status

1. 12 99 Carl Edwards Office Depot Ford 200 195 Running

2. 8 1 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 200 175 Running

3. 41 20 Tony Stewart Home Depot Chevrolet 200 170 Running

4. 13 25 Casey Mears National Guard Chevrolet 200 165 Running

5. 23 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Budweiser Chevrolet 200 160 Running

6. 3 5 Kyle Busch Kellogg's Chevrolet 200 150 Running

7. 19 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 200 146 Running

8. 35 26 Jamie McMurray Crown Royal Ford 200 142 Running

9. 6 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet 200 143 Running

10. 18 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA Auto Toyota 199 139 Running

11. 21 21 Bill Elliott Motorcraft Ford 199 130 Running

12. 38 15 Paul Menard # Menards Chevrolet 199 132 Running

13. 30 7 Robby Gordon Menards/MAPEI Ford 199 124 Running

14. 7 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Chevrolet 199 126 Running

15. 40 0 David Reutimann # Burger King Toyota 199 118 Running

16. 11 7 Clint Bowyer DirecTV Chevrolet 199 115 Running

17. 20 38 David Gilliland M&M's Ford 199 112 Running

18. 17 22 Dave Blaney Caterpillar Toyota 199 109 Running

19. 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 199 111 Running

20. 27 14 Sterling Marlin Ginn Resorts Chevrolet 199 103 Running

21. 34 6 David Ragan # AAA Insurance Ford 198 100 Running

22. 25 88 Ricky Rudd Snickers Ford 198 97 Running

23. 29 41 Reed Sorenson Target Dodge 198 94 Running

24. 9 31 Jeff Burton AT&T Chevrolet 198 91 Running

25. 10 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 198 93 Running

26. 28 70 Johnny Sauter Radioactive / Chevrolet 198 85 Running

27. 37 45 John Andretti American Dodge 198 82 Running

28. 1 18 J.J. Yeley Interstate Chevrolet 198 79 Running

29. 15 1 Mark Martin U.S. Army Chevrolet 198 76 Running

30. 5 13 Joe Nemechek Haier Chevrolet 198 73 Running

31. 43 84 AJ Allmendinger # Red Bull Toyota 197 70 Running

32. 36 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Dealers Dodge 197 67 Running

33. 22 10 Scott Riggs Valvoline/Stanley Dodge 197 64 Running

34. 31 43 Bobby Labonte Cheerios Dodge 197 61 Running

35. 39 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dealers Dodge 196 58 Running

36. 42 66 Jeff Green Best Buy Chevrolet 196 55 Running

37. 4 12 Ryan Newman alltel Dodge 196 52 Running

38. 14 16 Greg Biffle Dish Network Ford 192 49 Running

39. 32 96 Tony Raines DLP HDTV Chevrolet 184 46 Running

40. 24 40 David Stremme Coors Light Dodge 183 43 Running

41. 16 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 140 40 Running

42. 26 17 Matt Kenseth Carhartt/DeWalt Ford 78 37 Accident

43. 33 42 Juan Pablo Montoya # Texaco/Havoline Dodge 67 34 Accident

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