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Written by Robert Trammell
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Monday, 27 October 2008 09:05 |
Carl Edwards made it look easy in Saturday's Kroger On Track For The Cure 250 Nationwide Series Race, leading all but sixty-eight of the 253 laps at Memphis Motorsports Park in posting his fifth victory of the season. In the process, Edwards trimmed eighty points from his deficit in the championship standings. With just three races now remaining, the defending series champion trails leader Clint Bowyer by 116 points. Bowyer struggled to a sixteenth-place finish, three laps down to Edwards. He had contact with Marcos Ambrose that resulted in the second caution of the race just twenty-nine laps in and then had a spin near mid-race that forced him further off the pace. Edwards built his lead to as much as ten seconds but won by a mere fourteen one-hundredths of a second over a fast-closing David Reutimann on a green-white-checkered restart to end the afternoon.
| Driver |
Points |
Behind Leader |
| Clint Bowyer |
4,667 |
---------- |
| Carl Edwards |
4,551 |
-116 |
| Brad Keselowski |
4,378 |
-289 |
| Mike Bliss |
4,168 |
-499 |
| David Ragan |
4,155 |
-512 |
| David Reutimann |
4,052 |
-615 |
| Kyle Busch |
3,931 |
-736 |
| Mike Wallace |
3,754 |
-913 |
| Jason Leffler |
3,726 |
-941 |
| Marcos Ambrose |
3,692 |
-975 |
PEP BOYS AUTO 500: Jimmie Johnson stormed from eleventh place to second after a late-race restart just eight laps from the finish of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race in Atlanta, padding his lead to 183 points in the Chase For The Sprint Cup with just three races left in this year's title series. Carl Edwards was the only driver to finish ahead of Johnson, claiming his seventh victory of the season; jumping past Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton into second place in the championship standings. A four-tire pit stop during the final caution period of the race enabled Johnson to make his late charge toward the front, although Edwards wound up wiht a two-and-a-half-second margin of victory. Johnson's second-place finish was even more impressive when you consider that he was penalized for speeding on pit road and had fallen as far back as thirtieth, one lap down. He got the lap back, but Johnson couldn't crack the top ten until that late caution took him to pit road for the new tires. Title contenders took seven of the top ten finishing positions with Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch completing the top five. Kenseth led the most laps (128). Edwards led ninety-eight circuits, including the final sixteen. Kurt Busch (sixth place) was the highest-finishing non-title contender.
| Driver |
Points |
Behind Leader |
| Jimmie Johnson |
6,248 |
----------- |
| Carl Edwards |
6,065 |
-183 |
| Greg Biffle |
6,063 |
-185 |
| Jeff Burton |
6,030 |
-218 |
| Kevin Harvick |
5,941 |
-307 |
| Jeff Gordon |
5,936 |
-312 |
| Clint Bowyer |
5,934 |
-314 |
| Tony Stewart |
5,847 |
-401 |
| Matt Kenseth |
5,835 |
-413 |
| dale Earnhardt Jr. |
5,829 |
-419 |
| Denny Hamlin |
5,823 |
-425 |
| Kyle Busch |
5,783 |
-465 |
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