Nashville Race Recap – 4th victory on concrete speedway

Carl Edwards has been known for domination on concrete.  He has had success at just about every track that has a concrete surface on the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but there is that one that has a special bond with – Nashville Superspeedway.  Going into Saturday afternoon’s race at the track, Edwards had scored three previous wins at the track, most of any driver. 

The team struggled during the practice sessions leading up to qualifying.  Edwards finally was able to tell his team that the car was feeling dialed in and they qualified the No. 60 Drive One Ford Mustang in 7th position on Saturday.  Edwards then had the race to worry about.  He wasted very little time before he was leading the race, as he passed Joey Logano for the lead.  He led the race through lap 134 when the second caution flag of the afternoon came out and several teams decided on different race strategies.  Edwards stuck with the four tire decision and his team was able to get him out of the pits with a 13.88 second pit stop, keeping him out front. 

On lap 191, Edwards went into a tight battle for the lead with Kyle Busch, as the two went side by side for close to 5 laps before Edwards gained complete control of the race.  He led the final 36 laps of the race for his second win of the season and his fourth at Nashville, the most of any driver.  Also Edwards moved into a tie for fourth on the all-time win list with NASCAR great Jack Ingram with 31 victories.

“At the end of the race, I was pedaling for all I had,” Edwards said. “I was kind of excited at the beginning of the race. I thought, ‘Boy, we’re going to run off with this thing. It’s going to be easy.’ Then at the end, that was white-knuckle. I was driving as hard as I can drive, racing Busch and Brad Keselowski.  Mike Beam and my Ford “Drive One” team did a great job and it feels great getting back into victory lane at Nashville Superspeedway.”