Edwards Gets His Second in a Row

Carl Edwards gambled on a late pit stop for tires, charged from sixth to first in 11 laps and won for the second consecutive week.

Edwards, 26, is accomplishing things a driver with his limited experience isn’t supposed to -- such as thrusting himself into the midst of NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship with two races left.

Edwards told the Roush Racing crew during the pit stop that if they could get his Ford back on the track in the top six, he could win it.

“All night the car had been awesome on the restarts,” Edwards said. “The last restart it was really good, and I just felt like as long as they could get us out in sixth or better, no matter what happened, I just felt really comfortable for some reason.

“That’s how I saw my chances, so that’s what I told them and they did the job.”

And so did he.

Edwards would not be denied Sunday, passing teammate Mark Martin for the lead two laps from the end of the Dickies 500 at Fort Worth.

Meanwhile, Tony Stewart finished sixth in a Chevrolet and had his lead in the Chase drop from 43 points to 38 over Jimmie Johnson, who drove his Chevrolet past Stewart two laps from the end and finished fifth.

Edwards, who has four victories in his first full season in Cup racing, jumped from a tie for fourth in the Chase, 107 points behind, to sole possession of third, 77 behind Stewart.

“We’re not going to change a thing,” Edwards said. “We’re out to win this championship and we’ll do it by having fun. That way, if we lose it, we’re still going to have fun.”

Debris brought out the sixth and final caution flag of the 334-lap race on Lap 319, and Edwards, who was leading, and fifth-place Stewart pitted for tires on the right side, while Martin and several other leaders stayed on track.

Edwards was sixth when the green flag came back out on Lap 323.

He got caught in traffic for a while, then quickly moved to third, passed teammate Matt Kenseth for second on Lap 330 and erased a 12-car-length lead by Martin before passing him on the outside coming off Turn 2 on the 1.5-mile oval on Lap 333.

“My hat’s off to Mark Martin,” Edwards said. “He almost won this race. It was only the tires that beat him; he had the best car.”

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Justin Wilson won the Mexico City Grand Prix, securing third place in the Champ Car season series.

Wilson took advantage of his second career pole and two good pits. He avoided big mistakes and led through 65 of the 70 laps on the 4.484-kilometer (2.786-mile) Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.

Sebastien Bourdais of France, who began the race with the season title already clinched, didn’t finish after making contact with Cristian da Matta of Brazil in the 61st lap.

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Dave Darland took the lead on the third lap and kept it for the rest of the 50-lap Budweiser Oval Nationals on Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway.

Darland, of Lincoln, Ind., started fourth in the 27-car field on the half-mile clay track in a race that matched drivers from the U.S. Auto Club’s national series with the USAC/CRA, a West Coast organization.

Damion Gardner of Concord, Calif., finished second.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Chase

The Nextel Cup standings through 34 of 36 races:

*--* PL DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Tony Stewart 6,255 -- 2 Jimmie Johnson 6,217 38 3 Carl Edwards 6,178 77 4 Greg Biffle 6,133 122 5 Mark Martin 6,132 123 6 Matt Kenseth 6,120 135 7 Ryan Newman 6,081 174 8 Kurt Busch 5,974 281 9 Rusty Wallace 5,940 315 10 Jeremy Mayfield 5,848 407

*--*

REMAINING RACES

* Sunday: Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

* Nov. 20: Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.