Bristol, TN (My Sportsbook) - Carl Edwards elected to go to the back of the field after spinning during qualifying, but it didn't hurt his chances of victory as he drove all the way to the front and captured Wednesday night's O'Reilly 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

The No.99 Roush Racing Ford driver, who made a successful Nextel Cup debut last week at Michigan, crossed the finish line 0.306 seconds ahead of runner- up Shane Hmiel.

"I don't know what to say, this has been the greatest week of my life," said Edwards in Victory Lane.

The victory was Edwards' third of the season and sixth of his career.

Ken Schrader won the pole earlier in the afternoon, but his No.52 Chevrolet struggled right from the start. Mike Skinner took the lead on the opening lap from Schrader who lost his power steering.

Skinner held the top spot until he came in for his first pit stop on lap 51. Hmiel inherited the lead and wouldn't give it up until a pit crew error on lap 103. The No.15 Chevy was forced to make a second stop when a lug nut was not tight enough.

Skinner then held off all comers until Edwards made his move on lap 180. After playing bumper tag with Skinner for a couple laps, Edwards ducked underneath him for the lead. Hmiel, who was in third at the time, followed Edwards past Skinner for second.

Edwards immediately put some space between himself and Hmiel expanding the lead to 0.889 seconds with 10 laps to go. He had built the lead to over a second when Skinner and Dennis Setzer crashed on lap 197.

Edwards finished off the night winning the restart and cruised the final two laps of the green-white-checker finish.

Matt Crafton, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick completed the top-five.

Series points leader Bobby Hamilton had a quiet evening falling back as far as 19th-place before rebounding to finish 12th. The respectable finish combined with Setzer's late race spin helped the Nashville, TN native expand his lead to 99 points (2,415-2,316). Edwards climbed to within 146 points of Hamilton. Matt Crafton (2,240) and Travis Kvapil (2,180) make of the top-five.

The next race in the championship is set for the Richmond International Raceway on Thursday September, 9th.