Edwards Earns Second Cup Win

Carl Edwards raced to his second Nextel Cup victory of the year, at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., easily adjusting to a new gearing rule and avoiding the tire woes that plagued other drivers Sunday.

The Missouri driver, who celebrated his first NASCAR Nextel Cup victory three months ago in Atlanta with a back flip from the window of his car, did it again.

His Ford led 45 of 200 laps and beat the Chevrolet of Brian Vickers in a race that ended under caution on the 2.5-mile triangle. Edwards took the lead for the fourth and final time on Lap 187. Vickers led six times for 121 laps, both race highs.

While he was winning, Edwards lost the points lead in the Busch Series because he couldn’t race Sunday in Nashville after a rainout Saturday night. Reed Sorenson took the Busch lead, and Edwards fell to fourth.

When he didn’t race in Nashville, Edwards jumped on a plane piloted by car owner Jack Roush. The flight proved more adventurous than the race because an airport near the track was fogged in.

“I stayed up until 4 in the morning practicing missed approaches with Jack Roush, which, by the way, are scarier than the tunnel turn,” Edwards said. “My heart was pounding.”

Eventually, Roush diverted to Scranton-Wilkes-Barre International and landed without incident.

Edwards, who moved from ninth to fourth in the Nextel Cup standings, set a Pocono record for winning from the deepest in the field. He started 29th. Terry Labonte held the record by winning from the 27th position in 1995.

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Clint Bowyer raced to his first NASCAR Busch Series victory, beating Kenny Wallace by 2.386 seconds in the rain-delayed Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn.

“It’s great to finally get the deal sealed at Nashville,” said Bowyer, who has five top-five finishes in five starts on the 1.3-mile concrete oval. “It all started for me here two years ago in an ARCA race and Richard Childress saw me.

“I absolutely cannot believe it. I’ve been in position before where I thought we had it and I spoke too soon. But I didn’t speak too soon today.”

The 26-year-old driver for Richard Childress Racing became the sixth driver to race to his first series victory in nine races on the track.

There was a precarious moment on the final lap, with Johnny Benson spinning to bring out the yellow flag, but Bowyer had already taken the white flag, and easily held off Wallace for the victory.

Rookie Reed Sorenson, who raced to his first Busch Series victory at the track in April, finished third to take the series points lead.

Tony Raines was third, followed by Martin Truex Jr., David Stremme, Denny Hamlin, J.J. Yeley, Johnny Sauter and Paul Wolfe.

The field started according to owner points after qualifying was rained out Saturday, putting then-series leader Edwards on the pole. However, he had to skip the race to run in the Nextel Cup race at Pocono in Pennsylvania, an event he won for his second victory of the season on NASCAR’s top series.

By rule, Edwards’ backup, Hank Parker Jr., had to start at the end of the field. He finished a lap down in 20th place.

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Fernando Alonso failed to finish a race for the first time this season in Montreal when he crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix, an error that closed his lead over Kimi Raikkonen in the world championship standings.

Alonso was leading the race when he hit the wall on the 39th lap. The suspension on his Renault was damaged, and he was forced to retire from the event. He failed to score a point and Raikkonen, the race winner, pulled within 22 points of him in the standings.

“Not a good day for me,” Alonso said. “In the end, I went too wide [in turn four], I touched the wall and damaged the car. This is a very disappointing result, because the weekend had been almost perfect until then.”

Alonso had qualified third and positioned himself to run for his fifth win of the season.

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Sweden’s Nic Jonsson passed teammate Christian Fittipaldi with four laps remaining to win the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series’ Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Jonsson and co-driver Tracy Krohn, driving a Pontiac Riley, earned their first career victories in Rolex Series competition.