Times wires
Saturday, April 23, 2011
GLADEVILLE, Tenn. — Carl Edwards arrived for his postrace news conference when a race official remarked that he now has enough guitars to start a band.
Edwards hit all the right notes Saturday in his fifth career victory at Nashville Superspeedway, holding off Kyle Busch to win the Nashville 300 and receiving another of the guitars given to winners at the track.
"We'll need a drummer," Edwards joked.
Edwards set the pace for much of the NASCAR Nationwide series race at the track, where he has won four second-tier events and one truck race. He led 148 of 225 laps and passed Busch on Lap 191 to take the lead for good. On the final lap, Edwards weaved past a slower car and held Busch at bay to take the checkered flag.
Edwards said the finish was more of a struggle than it appeared.
"Early in the race, our car was really superior," he said. "I could kind of stretch out a lead whenever I wanted to, but at the end of the race, I was really pedaling for all I had. The guys in the 18 (Busch) … did a good job of adjusting their car."
"It was a good race for us," Busch said. "(The car) was fast, just not fast enough."
Brad Keselowski, a two-time winner in Nashville, finished third, edging pole-sitter Joey Logano, and Ricky Stenhouse was fifth, the best finish by a non-Sprint Cup regular. Tampa's Aric Almirola was 10th, and Sprint Cup regular David Reutimann of Zephyrhills was 14th.
Edwards plans to auction the trophy guitar on eBay, with the proceeds going to the family of Roush-Fenway Racing employee Jonathan Bunting, who died last week in North Carolina.