Edwards gets second Cup win of year

Never before had Carl Edwards done his patented Victory Lane back-flip with such relish, pride and emotion.

“This is the race,” he said after winning Saturday night’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn. To do it, he held off previously dominant Kasey Kahne in the final 150 laps.

“This is the biggest win of my career,” Edwards said of his sixth in the Nextel Cup Series, and second this season. “To win at Bristol, I think, is everybody’s dream.

“I don’t know if this is going to sink in. This is ‘The Night Race at Bristol,’ 500 laps, and we won it.”

He and Kahne made it almost entirely a two-car show rather than the wild slugfest this race has become. Kahne led 305 laps, Edwards 182, and no other driver led more than three.

Kahne dominated more than 60% of the race, but Edwards was able to catch up and force a duel between Laps 330-335, largely because Michael Waltrip wouldn’t move his lapped car out of the way of the front-runners.

After that, Edwards’ Ford was simply superior to Kahne’s Dodge. Kahne finished 1.4 seconds behind, followed by Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I think for the first 300 laps we were probably the best car,” Kahne said. “After that, Carl came on stronger at the end. I just couldn’t get back to him. He was a touch better through the center of the corners, and he could get back in his throttle a little quicker down the straightaways.”

Edwards credited his crew chief, engineer Bob Osborne, for making the adjustments that wrested dominance from Kahne.

“Bob just kept making adjustments; he’s a really smart guy,” Edwards said. “The car just kept getting better and better.”

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ED HINTON

Series points leader Dario Franchitti won the pole for today’s Indy Racing League Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, while Danica Patrick, Franchitti’s Andretti Green Racing teammate, matched her career-best second-place qualifying effort.

Franchitti was fastest in single-lap qualifying on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn natural terrain road course with a time of 1 minute 16.7017 seconds (107.167 mph). Patrick had a fast lap of 1:17.1812 (107.325).

Sebastien Bourdais won his fifth pole position of the season in the final qualifying session for today’s Champ Car World Series Belgian Grand Prix. He completed the 2.5-mile Zolder circuit in 1 minute 12.821 seconds at an average speed of 123.2 mph.

Robert Doornbos was second, 0.246 of a second slower than Bourdais. Will Power was third, 0.373 behind, but he won the provisional pole on Friday and will start next to Bourdais.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari won the pole for today’s Formula One Turkish Grand Prix with a fast lap of 1 minute 27.329 seconds at the 3.316-mile Istanbul Park circuit. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was second with 1:27.373 and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third with 1:27.546.

Division points leader Rip Michels took the lead from rookie Travis Thirkettle on the 30th lap and went on to win the ACDelco Super Late Model 50-lap feature race at Irwindale Speedway.

The win was Michels’ 10th of the season and his margin of victory over Thirkettle was 1.826 seconds.