Edwards gets the Friday night win
Friday, Sep. 11, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. – Friday night, Carl Edwards took the more traditional approach.
Without the ability to do his patented backflip after a victory, Edwards instead opted for a far more common burnout on the frontstretch after holding off Kevin Harvick and winning the Virginia College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway.
Last week Edwards broke his right foot in an accident while playing Frisbee and has had to use crutches to get around. He still has been able to continue his driving duties but backflips so far have not been doctor-approved.
The win is Edwards' fourth Nationwide Series win of the season and 24th of his career. Despite the win, Edwards made up only 10 points on series points leader Kyle Busch, who finished third. Busch leads Edwards by 201 points.
"It was a great effort all around and it took every part of our team," said Edwards. "We had something wrong with spark plug during qualifying. We started in the back; Dan (Stillman, crew chief) had great pit strategy.
"There in the end my guys put me in the lead off pit road. Once we got out front, we took off like a rocket ship."
Edwards said he hoped maybe the performance would end questions about his foot, although he did give some consideration to how he would celebrate his win.
"One of our guys, Mike Riggs, his plan was for me to stop on the grass and he was going to attempt a backflip off the car, but I don't think he's ever successfully performed that," Edwards said.
"He was just planning on the emotion and the energy of the moment to make it work. He was really upset I didn't stop down there but I'm really glad I forgot about that. He would have probably needed medical attention."
Brad Keselowski finished fourth and David Reutimann was fifth. Denny Hamlin led the most laps (101) but made contact with Harvick late in the race battling for the lead and was forced to pit under green to repair damage.
The race was slowed five times by caution for 25 laps. There were eight lead changes among six drivers.
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