Nationwide Series – Able Body Labor 200 11/14/09

Carl Edwards won Saturday’s Nationwide Series race in the Valley of the Sun…

…as points leader Kyle Busch wiped out his hopes of clinching the title.

Photo Credit: Christian Peterson/Getty Images

Busch has a 190 point lead, so all he has to do is start next weekend’s race finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim the championship.

Edwards has spent much of the season trying to catch up to the points leader. Although he has posted impressive stats on his own, it’s not quite enough. “That’s 25 — 25 (career Nationwide) wins,” Edwards said about his 5th win and 29th top-10 finish of the season. He led a race-high 109 laps.

“I know Kyle’s almost clinched the championship, but that’s what we came here to do, win the race,” Edwards said, foregoing his signature victory back flip for a somersault instead. “We kept him from having that trophy for one more week,” Edwards said.

“There’s something to be said about that. In the end, you race for a couple of different things. You race for the championship for sure, but really, you race for wins. The win feels good no matter what. So I’m proud of my guys. Those guys on the 18 team have done a really good job. If they do seal it next week like they look like they’re going to, they deserve it. They’ve performed very well.”

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

Eight laps into Saturday afternoon’s race, Kyle Busch made contact with Cup regular, Clint Bowyer and hit the wall. “I was driving a bucket of (expletive/junk),” he said. The 18 team went to work quickly on the race car, pulling out the front fender. They were able to get Kyle back out on the track before he lost a lap. Busch restarted 34th but was able to climb up to 4th before settling for a 9th place finish.

Edwards and pole-sitter Denny Hamlin led all of the race’s 200 laps. There was just 3 lead changes between the two, but fireworks erupted involving Hamlin late in the race. Hamlin and rival Brad Keselowski were racing each other intently which ultimately brought out the 6th and final caution as Hamlin took a spin with 42 laps to go.

“On the last restart there, Denny got into the back of me and pushed me up the track,” Keselowski said. “I was going to return the favor. When he did it to me, I saved it. When I did it to him, he didn’t save it. We just got into a pushing match. I don’t really hold any grudges. I don’t know why he wanted to do that. But whatever, that’s just how racing, is I guess.”

“I can sit here and bash him for the next 20 seconds or so and give you all a bunch of sound bites,” Hamlin said. “But I’m just happy that I signed up for next week’s Nationwide race, and you know in turn, there’s a lot of guys that owe him. There’s a lot of guys that have a lot of chips that they’re going to cash in, I’m just going to be the first to the pay window.”

There was no post-race confrontation on pit road.

Kevin Harvick, who finished 2nd, said, “I got out of my car as quick as I could, I thought we would see some action (on pit road).”

Brad Keselowski finished 5th while Hamlin finished 12th. Keselowski is 3rd in points, 55 points behind 2nd place Carl Edwards.

It’s being reported that Hamlin spoke with Keselowski in the garage after the race, but didn’t feel like it was resolved so he spoke with NASCAR President Mike Helton. Helton was then seen in the motor home lot at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s motor home. Keselowski will finish the season driving for JR Motorsports before he makes the move to Penske Racing.

UPDATE 11/15: Keselowski was called to the NASCAR hauler before Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. The meeting was said to be about 20 minutes. He met with NASCAR President Mike Helton, VP of Competition Robin Pemberton, Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash and chairman Brian France. After the meeting, Keselowski was quoted as saying, “I really respect the fact that Brian France walked in there, that meant a lot to me. It’s really the first time I’ve ever had a conversation with him. I think that’s a good sign for the sport that he was involved in that conversation.”

There were 6 cautions for 29 laps and only 3 lead changes among 2 drivers: D. Hamlin 1-12; C. Edwards 13-16; D. Hamlin 17-95; C. Edwards 96-200

A 13 minute red flag came out on lap 100 due to a crash involving Paul Menard, Eric McClure and Jason Bowles. 17 cars finished on the lead lap.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

1 more to go.
All Kyle Busch has to do is start the race to win the 2009 Nationwide Series championship.
Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway
Saturday, Nov. 21st at 4:30 pm ET on ESPN2.