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Edwards holds on late to win at Texas

Apr 6, 2008 - 10:24 PM FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- Carl Edwards proved he was the man to beat at Texas.

Edwards survived a green-white-checkered finish Sunday to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, his second career win at the one-mile oval.

Edwards had nearly a two-second lead over reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson when Martin Truex Jr. brought out the sixth caution of the race with four laps remaining with a blown engine.

That bunched the field together, but Edwards was able to pull away on the restart to cross the finish line almost a half-second ahead of Johnson for his third win of the season and 10th career.

"Man, I didn't know about that last restart," Edwards said. "It means the world to come out of here with a win though."

The win also gave Edwards some measure of vindication after he was penalized following his victory at Las Vegas. During post-race inspection, it was determined that the lid on the oil reservoir encasement on his Fusion was off.

As a result, Edwards and car owner Jack Roush were penalized 100 championship driver and 100 championship owner points, respectively. At the time, the sanctions dropped Edwards from first in the Sprint Cup standings to seventh.

Also, Edwards' crew chief Bob Osborne was suspended for the ensuing six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events.

"This one's for Bob, who's sitting back home," said Edwards, who climbed up to 10th in the standings.

Kyle Busch, who won Saturday's Nationwide series race here, was third in a Toyota.

"We were on the edge all day trying to get the car right," Busch said. "We were like a razor blade - on the edge of falling either way. But we had enough there at the end to hold some guys off."

Ryan Newman was fourth in a Dodge, followed by Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.

Jeff Burton was sixth in a Chevrolet and increased his lead atop the standings to 59 points over Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who was 11th on Sunday.

Johnson moved up four spots in the standings and sits sixth, 144 behind Burton.

"Carl was better than us at the end," Johnson said. "Today was a great day. We had a great handling race car, but we had nothing for Carl at the end."

Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon crashed on lap 109 and finished last for only the second time in his career.