Carl Edwards Wins Sharpie 500

BRISTOL, Tenn. – For three hours, Kyle Busch was unbeatable Saturday night. Then along came his biggest rival.

Just call him “Concrete Carl.”

After coming up short on numerous attempts to take the lead, Carl Edwards finally made the decisive pass on lap 470 en route to winning his second straight Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Edwards said. “I just bumped into [Busch] and moved him out of the way.
“That’s not the best way to win a race. This is NASCAR racing, and I wanted to win real bad.”

While Busch was peeved with his runner-up finish, Edwards said it was simply matter of hard racing.

“I couldn’t get by him,” Edwards said. “I kind of ran into him. I asked myself would [Busch] do that to me, and he has before. That was exciting.
“They keep talking about rivalries. We might have one now.”

Busch added to the budding rivalry after the race by bumping the Edwards car on the cool-down lap. To the delight of the fans, Edwards then returned the bump.

“[Edwards] spun me out going into the turn,” Busch said. “I just got into him a little and let him know that I didn’t appreciate the way he passed me.
“We will take it and move on if that’s the way he wants to race in the Chase.”

Edwards, who led the 48 first laps from the pole has earned the nickname of “Concrete Carl” for his success on tracks with concrete surfaces. He entered Saturday with eight victories on concrete tracks.

Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five

Except for the final 30 laps, it appeared that Busch would win his record 18th race of the season counting the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series.

In Wednesday’s truck race at BMS, Busch led the final 130 laps. He joined Edwards and Mark Martin as the only drivers to win in all three series at the high-banked oval.

Saturday night, Busch whipped under fast cars for clean passes, masterfully worked around lapped traffic and was flawless on restarts.

Busch grabbed the lead on lap 55 in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, then commented over his radio on the relative ease of the pass. In his trademark “no-brakes” fashion, Busch controlled the race until the
Edwards pass on lap 469.  That was the most dominant stretch of any driver all season.

The race was stopped for a mysterious “debris” caution on lap 453, yet it appeared nothing could stop Busch.

Before a seven-car crash on lap 216 that stopped the race 12 minutes for a red flag condition, Busch had opened a lead of 10 car lengths. Casey Mears, who will join the Richard Childress team next
year, started the melee then blamed his spotter for giving him the clear signal.

On lap 284, Busch barely evaded a wreck involving the Dave Blaney.

In a storyline familiar to last year’s race, the first 97 laps went caution-free and there were only 20 cars on the lead lap by 190.

The concrete surface at BMS was repaved and reconfigured before last year’s Sharpie 500.

Thanks to the wider and smoother conditions, there were only nine cautions at a track famous for wrecks. In fact, the first of those nine cautions did not come lap 127 and there were a total of eight cautions for 56 laps.

While the reviews have been mixed to the new-look BMS, the drivers enjoy the opportunity to race two-and-three wide instead of having to bump slower cars out of the way.

The night began on a sour note for crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. as he was penalized for jumping the start of the race. Despite losing a lap, Earnhardt charged back to finish 18th.

Two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson executed one of the most impressive driving feats of the night from lap 24-26. After experiencing a cut on his right rear-tire, Johnson managed to save his swerving car four times before pitting.

By the time Johnson left pit road, he was 13 laps off the pace.

On lap 194, Jeff Burton became entangled in a chain reaction involving Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek. Burton entered the night ranked third in Sprint Cup points.

“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Burton said.

Meanwhile, Edwards was in the right place at just the right time.

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