Edwards aces thrill ride with Sprint Cup win in Las Vegas

Carl Edwards jumped off the Stratosphere Tower 10 days ago and flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds on Thursday.

His latest adventure in Las Vegas was celebrating in Victory Lane on Sunday after winning his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race in four years at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before an estimated crowd of 140,000.

Quite the Vegas vacation, indeed.

"I've had a blast. I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend," Edwards said, adding he plans to award the Kobalt Tools 400 winner's trophy to the Thunderbirds, who he said inspired him.

The resident of Columbia, Mo., was flying high after winning for the 19th time in the series and earning his Roush Fenway Racing team $401,541.

Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne are the hottest duo in the series. They won the last two races of 2010 and were second in the season-opening Daytona 500.

"This is the best start to a season that I've ever had," Edwards said. "We have been performing really well, and it's just a joy to drive these race cars right now. The Fords are back and are strong."

The victory was the seventh in 14 Las Vegas Cup races for Roush Fenway Racing.

Edwards, who won the 2008 Cup race here, finished 1.246 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart, who led a race-best 163 of 267 laps in a Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that was clearly dominant.

Even Edwards doubted he would have won without a blunder by Stewart's team on lap 151. Stewart fell from first to 23rd when NASCAR assessed a stop-and-go penalty after his car dragged a piece of equipment out of the pit box during a stop.

"We just gave one away today," Stewart said. "I don't even know what to say. We just gave one away. (Our car) was the baddest thing on the West Coast today. Second sucks."

Stewart regained the lead on lap 200 after his team saved time by changing two tires and other front-runners took four. But that cost him on the last stop with 32 laps remaining when he had to change four tires and Edwards took two and beat him onto the track.

"It definitely didn't hurt the decision-making process to see them run extremely well with two tires," Osborne said. "I thought our only opportunity was to leapfrog them on the track and hope we could hold them off."

Stewart took the points lead through three races with 113, tying him with Kurt Busch, who finished ninth after rebounding from a spin on lap 103. Edwards is third.

The last 32 laps provided the drama missing during the first 235, not counting a fire when the engine in Kyle Busch's car detonated or Jeff Gordon's day ending when he crashed into a wall.

After a record number of lead changes in the season's first two races, there were 21 on Sunday -- seven fewer than the track record -- and nearly all were products of pit stops. Cars ran single file for nearly all the race with only a smattering of green-flag lead changes.

For much of the day it would have been easier for a driver to pass a kidney stone than another car.

"Anybody out there today knew that passing was nearly impossible," said Denny Hamlin, who probably passed the most. A post-qualifying engine change dropped him to the rear of the 43-car field to start and he finished seventh.

"Hopefully when we come back here (Goodyear) will soften the tire up, and that's when you'll see a lot of side-by-side action," Hamlin said.

Edwards, though, said excitement was not lacking from his vantage point.

"I can tell you, from the driver's seat there are no more exciting tracks to drive on," he said of Las Vegas. "This place has a lot of character. You slide the car at 200 mph through the corner and there are multiple grooves.

"Some days we will have races that are more single file and some days we won't. I think the savvy fans know what's going on."

Spoken like a driver who had just won the race.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.