Full Throttle

Carl Edwards claimed his sixth Nationwide series win of the season at Phoenix International Raceway, reducing Clint Bowyer’s lead in the championship ahead of next week’s finale at Homestead.

His win plus his full point score thanks to leading the most laps allowed Edwards to close in on points leader Clint Bowyer, who had a dramatic afternoon but still managed to finish in the top five. However the gap separating the pair has been almost cut by half, as Edwards is now just 56 points behind the Richard Childress Racing driver.

Bowyer finished fourth after pitting for new tires from fifth on the last caution with only six laps remaining. Despite losing a good chunk of his points lead to Edwards he could breathe a sigh of relief as things looked far worse for him earlier in the race.

Carl Edwards led the final 78 laps en route to winning the Hefty Odor Block 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. (Photo Credit: Harry How/Getty Images)

The impact damaged the nose of Bowyer’s Chevy, and after a series of pit stops to tape the front end, Bowyer fell to the back of the pack. After another quick caution on Lap 85, Bowyer restarted 24th and spent the rest of the race working his way forward.

“It was a roller coaster, for sure,” he said. “But I’m really proud of our guys. They didn’t give up. I thought our championship run was done right there. The car was really tight after that, and we had to pull all the tape off. But it was a good run for us - really proud.”

“If someone would have come to me at the beginning of the year and said `You’ll have a 56-point lead,’ I’d have been pumped,” Bowyer said. “If we go out there and do exactly what we did today, then we’ll be the champions.”

Denny Hamlin led early on but his team fitted the wrong set of tyres to the #18 Gibbs Toyota at their first pitstop, forcing him to pit again to fix the issue. The mistake cost them the lead, which they were unable to recover, although they still got second place making the most of a new set of tyres he got during the last caution.

Harvick led the race for 53 laps but ended up third after staying out like Edwards on the last caution, caused by Marcos Ambrose hitting the wall. Joey Logano also stayed out and was third on the final restart but he hit the wall on the last lap and finished tenth in the end.

Kyle Busch was fifth driving for Braun Racing, while Landon Cassill impressed with a sixth place finish for JR Motorsports. AJ Allmendinger was twelfth on his return to the Nationwide Series, driving the #9 car for Gillett Evernham Motorports.