Edwards wins following contact with Keselowski

Posted on July 18th, 2010 by Stephen Rhodes in NASCAR - Nationwide Series - News/Rumors - Race Results

Edwards moves Keselowski for Nationwide win

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(July 17, 2010)

MADISON, Ill. —The feud between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski—dormant since Atlanta in March—erupted like an angry volcano at Gateway International Raceway.

In a drag race to the finish line, Edwards sent Keselowski hard into the outside wall on the way to winning Saturday night’s Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race at the 1.25-mile track. As Edwards took the checkered flag two car lengths ahead of runner-up Reed Sorenson, Keselowski careened into the inside retaining wall and took a vicious shot from Shelby Howards’s Chevrolet just short of the finish line.

Less than a lap earlier, Keselowski had bumped Edwards in Turn 1 in an attempt to take the lead after a restart on Lap 199 of 200. Edwards’ Ford and Keselowski’s Dodge raced side-by-side for most of the final lap. With Keselowski edging ahead as the cars approached the stripe, Edwards turned Keselowski’s Dodge, igniting a multicar pileup on the frontstretch.

“I just couldn’t let him take the win from me,” said Edwards, who drew a three-race probation in March for unabashedly turning Keselowski in a Sprint Cup race at Atlanta, with the unintended consequence of sending the No. 12 Dodge upside-down into the frontstretch wall. “My guys work way too hard for that.

“We had a great restart. My guys built me a great car. We came to the checkered flag, and I hate to see stuff tore up, but we came here to win and he took it from us there in Turn 1. Just an awesome race. … I’m sure some of them don’t like that win—Brad Keselowski fans and stuff—but, man, I just couldn’t let him take it from me. I had to do what I had to do.”

In Keselowski’s view, Edwards action at Gateway was intentional.

“He turned left into me and wrecked me on purpose,” Keselowski said. “I gave him the lane, and he still wrecked me. … I figured out a way to beat him. He wasn’t happy with me, so he wrecked me. Wrecking down the straightaway is never cool, whether it’s at 200 mph or 120. I’m sorry that’s the way it had to end.”

Keselowski’s father, old-school racer Bob Keselowski, had an even stronger take on the finish.

“Brad got into Carl getting out of Turn 1—racing—they bumped, they rubbed, typical rubbing-racing deal,” Bob Keselowski said. “Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta and tried to kill the kid. I’m sick and tired of this. I’ll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He ain’t going to kill my boy.”

“He just overreacted so bad. If he wanted to bump Brad, it’s one thing. But don’t drive him through the inside guardrail. Don’t put him in the grandstands at Atlanta . That’s asinine.”

After meeting with Edwards in the NASCAR hauler, Nationwide Series director Joe Balash attributed the final-lap crash to hard racing.

“I think at the last lap there was a lot of hard racing going on,” Balash said. “There was some movement on the racetrack. It was a tough finish for a really great race.

“We’ve chatted about this evening, yes. We don’t talk about any of those conversations (that we have) in the hauler.”

The last-lap crash marred what should have been a triumphant finish at the venue Columbia , Mo. , native Edwards considers his home track. Edwards is the first three-time winner at Gateway, and with his second victory of the year and the 27th of his career, he trimmed Keselowski’s lead in the series standings from 227 to 168 points in what has become, for practical purposes, a two-man race.

Polesitter Trevor Bayne ran third, his best finish to date. Paul Menard came home fourth, followed by Steve Wallace. Brian Scott, Colin Braun, Josh Wise, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tony Raines completed the top 10.

Below are the unofficial results from the 2010 Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250:

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	8	60	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	190/5	200	Running
2	13	32	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Dollar General	170/0	200	Running
3	1	99	Trevor Bayne	Toyota	Out! Pet Care	170/5	200	Running
4	5	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Richmond Water Heaters / Menards	160/0	200	Running
5	9	66	Steve Wallace	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	155/0	200	Running
6	6	11	Brian Scott *	Toyota	AccuDoc Solutions	150/0	200	Running
7	2	16	Colin Braun *	Ford	Con-way Freight	146/0	200	Running
8	34	7	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	142/0	200	Running
9	15	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr. *	Ford	CitiFinancial	138/0	200	Running
10	22	34	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	Long John Silver’s	134/0	200	Running
11	33	15	Michael Annett	Toyota	Pilot Travel Centers	130/0	200	Running
12	12	70	Shelby Howard	Chevrolet	Foretravel Motorcoach	127/0	200	Running
13	26	88	Steve Arpin	Chevrolet	Blue Harbor Bank	124/0	200	Running
14	3	22	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Discount Tire	131/10	200	Running
15	21	05	Willie Allen	Chevrolet	31-W Insulation	118/0	200	Running
16	10	33	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches	120/5	200	Running
17	4	62	Brendan Gaughan	Toyota	South Point Hotel & Casino	112/5	198	Running
18	20	10	Tayler Malsam	Toyota	Iron Horse Jeans	109/0	198	Running
19	39	40	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	Jansen Chevrolet	106/0	198	Running
20	32	28	Kenny Wallace	Chevrolet	Juggle.com	103/0	198	Running
21	41	21	Morgan Shepherd	Chevrolet	Victory In Jesus	100/0	197	Running
22	37	01	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	Bandana’s Bar-B-Q	97/0	197	Running
23	24	38	Jason Leffler	Toyota	Great Clips	94/0	196	Running
24	42	23	Alex Kennedy	Chevrolet	Media Master	91/0	196	Running
25	16	12	Justin Allgaier	Dodge	Verizon Wireless	88/0	194	Accident
26	43	24	Eric McClure	Ford	Hefty Odorblock	85/0	193	Running
27	17	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	HostGator.com	82/0	189	Accident
28	19	100	Ryan Truex	Toyota	NAPA	79/0	178	Accident
29	18	20	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	Pizza Ranch	76/0	163	Running
30	7	18	Brad Coleman	Toyota	SafeWay Driving Centers	73/0	150	Accident
31	38	09	Landon Cassill	Ford	RAB Racing	70/0	102	Vibration
32	29	27	Kelly Bires	Toyota	Baker Curb Racing	67/0	62	Engine
33	40	43	Brad Baker	Ford	Baker Curb Racing	64/0	61	Brakes
34	23	35	Jason Keller	Chevrolet	TriStar Motorsports	61/0	44	Accident
35	31	156	Kevin Lepage	Chevrolet	RaceDaySponsor.com	58/0	26	Ignition
36	11	91	Chase Miller	Chevrolet	D’Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	55/0	24	Electrical
37	28	90	Danny O’Quinn Jr.	Chevrolet	D’Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	52/0	20	Vibration
38	27	26	Brian Keselowski	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	49/0	13	Brakes
39	14	37	Kevin Swindell	Ford	Curb Records	46/0	8	Brakes
40	35	89	Johnny Chapman	Chevrolet	Victory In Jesus	43/0	6	Oil Pressure
41	25	136	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	Long John Silver’s	40/0	4	Electrical
42	36	92	Dennis Setzer	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	37/0	3	Vibration
43	30	49	Mark Green	Chevrolet	Jay Robinson Inc.	34/0	2	Electrical