Edwards Wins on Daring Move

NASCAR has a new star.

Carl Edwards pulled off a daring move on Jimmie Johnson coming off the final turn, narrowly won a side-by-side sprint to the finish line Sunday and then celebrated his first Nextel Cup victory with a back flip in front of the main grandstand at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.

“I almost didn’t make it,” said Edwards, who braced his landing with his hands. “I was a little tired from all the excitement.”

Though he may have cost himself style points, Edwards earned the respect of car owner Jack Roush by out-dueling one of NASCAR’s top drivers on a back tire that was nearly shredded.

“He’s got two inches of rubber missing,” Roush said. “He’s got no tire left at all. He did it strictly on guts and determination. I couldn’t be more proud of Carl.”

Johnson, trying to win for the second week in a row, grabbed the lead from Edwards with 25 laps to go and appeared to be strong enough to take it all the way to the finish of the Golden Corral 500.

But, on the final lap, Edwards got a great run coming out of turn two and pulled up on Johnson’s back bumper. Johnson went high coming through turns three and four, trying to block his challenger. But Edwards went even higher in his Ford.

The 25-year-old driver hardly resembled someone in his first full year on the circuit, hugging the wall and tapping Johnson’s car as they roared through the trioval.

Johnson’s car bobbled slightly just a few feet from the finish, and Edwards slipped by on the outside to win by a minuscule 0.028 of a second -- about half a car length.

Edwards completed a weekend sweep in Atlanta. On Saturday, he held off Johnson and Tony Stewart to win the Busch race -- his first victory in that series as well.

Edwards, who moved from trucks to Nextel Cup for the final 13 races last season, is running a full schedule in both series, trying to gain as much experience as possible.

“You can see his intensity, his car control,” Johnson said. “This guy is our next superstar.”

Greg Biffle held on for third, followed by Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne.

Johnson led a race-high 156 laps, followed by Biffle with 151. Edwards led only nine laps, but he was near the front all day.

Though disappointed with the finish, Johnson shook off the embarrassment of being docked 25 points and temporarily losing his series lead because his Chevrolet failed inspection after winning last week’s race at Las Vegas.

Johnson’s team wasn’t the only one to face NASCAR’s wrath after Las Vegas. Three crew chiefs were suspended for rules violations, though two of them were in Atlanta pending appeals.

At the drivers’ meeting before the race, NASCAR President Mike Helton issued a stern warning to the drivers and crew chiefs. He raised the possibility of stiffer penalties if teams continued to flout the rulebook.

Todd Berrier, the crew chief for Kevin Harvick, began serving a four-race suspension, although he was appealing the severity of his penalty. Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson, who works with Kyle Busch, were at the race pending a chance to contest their two-race suspensions for failing inspection.

The race wasn’t even a lap old when 10 cars got caught up in a huge wreck coming down the backstretch.

Casey Mears spun off turn two, sparking a wild melee that took out four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and six-time Atlanta winner Bobby Labonte. The race was halted for nearly 10 minutes as workers cleaned up the mess.

Gordon and Labonte eventually got back in the race with rebuilt cars, but only to earn as many points as possible on the high-banked oval. Labonte finished 37th, Gordon 39th.

Kurt Busch also was involved in the big wreck, but he had only minor damage.

Even with the 25-point penalty, Johnson regained his series lead. He has an 82-point lead over Biffle and 87 over Edwards. Busch slipped to fourth, 103 points behind.

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In Sepang, Malaysia, Fernando Alonso won the Malaysian Grand Prix in 1 hour 31 minute 33.736 seconds to give Renault its second victory in a row. He was 24.3 seconds ahead of Jarno Trulli, who powered Toyota to its first top-three finish in Formula One. Nick Heidfeld of Williams-BMW was third.

Michael Schumacher, who completed a fifth consecutive drivers’ championship last year by winning 13 of 18 races, was seventh. Still, that was two points in the standings and an improvement from the season opener in Australia, where Schumacher stopped after colliding with Heidfeld.

Alonso said Renault needs to capitalize as Ferrari is running a modified version of its 2004 cars. Ferrari’s F2005 is still being tested and might be introduced at the next event in Bahrain on April 3 before the 19-race series heads to Europe.

Alonso improved two places from Melbourne, giving Renault 26 points in the constructors’ championship. The 23-year-old driver is the first Spaniard to lead the F1 drivers’ standings.

“It’s a fantastic feeling,” said Alonso, who has 16 points from a win and a third place.

He is six points ahead of Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, who won in Australia two weeks ago.

Fisichella was cautioned by stewards Sunday after crashing on the 37th lap with Williams driver Mark Webber in a duel for third place.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished fourth for McLaren and Ralf Schumacher was fifth in the other Toyota, and Red Bull again exceeded expectations with David Coulthard finishing sixth and Christian Klien eighth. Toyota jumped to second in the standings (12 points) and Red Bull to third (11).

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Doug Kalitta raced to his 20th career top fuel victory, beating Larry Dixon in the Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla.

In a tire-smoking finish, Kalitta managed to regain traction in his dragster and cross the finish line just in front of Dixon. Kalitta finished in 5.182 seconds at 296.24 mph. Dixon trailed in 5.925 at 169.81.

Whit Bazemore, Jason Line and Steve Johnson also won their divisions in the $2-million competition.