West Allis, WI (My Sportsbook) - Carl Edwards finally made his first celebratory backflip this year after winning Saturday's NorthernTool.com 250 Nationwide Series race at The Milwaukee Mile.
Edwards, who won last year's race at Milwaukee, passed Kyle Busch for the lead with 45 laps remaining. He then held off Busch in two late-race restarts to claim his first NASCAR victory since winning the season-ending Sprint Cup and Nationwide events at Homestead last November.
"It's been a while since we've won a race," Edwards said. "We started up here last season, and it's almost too good to be true. Hopefully, the rest of this season goes like the rest of last season did."
Edwards has yet to win a Cup race this year after scoring a series-high nine victories last season.
One year ago, Edwards kicked-started the remainder of his 2008 Nationwide season with the victory at Milwaukee. He trailed leader Clint Bowyer by 225 points at this time last year, but went on to win seven of the remaining 19 races, only to lose the championship to Bowyer by 21 points. He is now 127 points behind Busch.
Edwards and Busch had to start from the rear of the field since they did not qualify. Both drivers practiced for Sunday's Sprint Cup road-course race at Sonoma, CA before arriving to Milwaukee. Colin Braun prepared and qualified Edwards' car, while Johnny Sauter did the same for Busch.
Busch grabbed the lead for the first time after a round of pit stops at the halfway point. He led the most laps for the eighth consecutive race, but ended up with a second-place finish.
"It's just what we do, we come here to finish second," a frustrated Busch said after the race.
Busch also finished second after leading 162 of 200 laps last week at Kentucky. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano passed him with 10 laps to go to take the victory there.
Brad Keselowski finished third, while Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing teammates Erik Darnell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came in fourth and fifth.
Steve Wallace, Mike Bliss, Stephen Leicht, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Jason Leffler completed the top-10.
Hornaday, celebrating his 51st birthday on Saturday, won the rain-delayed Camping World Truck Series race at Milwaukee earlier in the day.
