Carl Edwards wins O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway

Fort Worth – Carl Edwards won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge, his 28th victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  Edwards finished ahead of Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.  This is Edwards’ 3rd victory of the NNS season.  It is his 1st Nationwide Series victory at Texas.  He has 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at Texas.

Kyle Busch posted his 11th top-10 finish in 12 races at Texas Motor Speedway.  It is his 24th top-10 of the season.  Busch was not happy with a 2nd-place finish, “Our car was fast there in the beginning but we just didn’t quite have the speed it took there towards the end of the race with the way the 22 (Keselowski) and the 60 (Edwards) made adjustments and got going really, really good.  We just didn’t have the speed quite like they did.  I don’t know if it was under the hood or through the corners.  Through the corners it seemed like I could make up a little ground, but I couldn’t maintain it down the next straightaway.  Disappointing day finishing second.” 

An angry Busch also accused Edwards of jumping the restart.  “Oh yeah, he went before the double red marks on the wall.  My understanding in the rules, you’re not supposed to.  You can’t make up two car lengths on a guy who already has two car lengths on you by the start finish line.  It’s not going to happen.  I got too far behind and couldn’t run up on him.  The race was lost instantly.”

Keselowski’s 3rd place finish is his 6th top-10 in 9 races at Texas, his 27th top-10 of the 2010 NNS season.   By finishing 3rd, Keselowski clinches the 2010 Nationwide Series championship – the first Dodge driver to do so in the series.  It is the 1st NASCAR championship for car owner Roger Penske.  Penske gave credit to the entire team for the championship, “Obviously Brad is a great driver.  Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) and all the team members that put this together, this deal came together quickly.  At the beginning of the season, we had a vision on how to win this championship.  We had the reliability and our guys put it together.”

Brad Keselowski celebrates clinching the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship at Texas Motor Speedway.  Photo by George Walker.

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