Carl Edwards cruises to Nationwide Series victory at Phoenix
Carl Edwards drove to a dominant win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway in a Ford that Edwards declared “the best race car I’ve ever had.”
Danica Patrick, meanwhile, had another rough outing in her part-time NASCAR experiment and finished 32nd in the 43-car field.
Edwards, one of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars who also compete in the second-level Nationwide Series, won by five seconds over Kevin Harvick and led 153 laps of the 200-lap race at the one-mile Phoenix oval.
It was Edwards’ second consecutive Nationwide win and his fourth of the season.
Pole-sitter Joey Logano led 23 laps early in the race before finishing third. Brad Keselowski, who already has clinched the Nationwide Series championship for car owner Roger Penske, was fourth.
“Carl had his car hooked up today; we had nothing for him,” Logano said. “I don’t think anyone had anything for him.”
Patrick, the popular IndyCar Series driver who is trying out stock-car racing, was driving in her 12th Nationwide race and started in 28th place. For the first half of the race she kept her No. 7 Chevrolet between 25th and 30th, although she fell one lap behind the leaders.
But in the second half of the race Patrick got a good taste of the so-called beatin’ and bangin’ that’s commonplace in NASCAR, making contact with other cars that first crumpled her left front fender and then caused her to spin and hit the outside wall.
That forced her to the pits for several laps while her JR Motorsports crew made repairs, and she finished seven laps behind Edwards.
Patrick’s best Nationwide showing this year is a 21st-place finish at Charlotte.
Another newcomer, 19-year-old Cole Whitt, had a much better race and finished 15th in his Nationwide Series debut. Whitt, who drives for Red Bull Racing, is from Alpine, Calif., east of El Cajon, where four-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson grew up.
“We raced with some big names and I think we learned a lot,” Whitt said.
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