by Dan Peters

 
Carl Edwards made the trip from Infineon Raceway worthwhile again on Saturday night, winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series NorthernTool.com 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, for the second straight year.

Edwards left Infineon earlier in the day, where he practiced his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car, to race at Milwaukee. Having to start at the rear of the field, Edwards tiptoed through the field early in the race.

After his Cup counterpart, Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch, led for numerous laps, Edwards chased him down and made the pass for the lead on Lap 205.

Despite two caution periods in the final 50 laps, Edwards easily pulled away to his first Nationwide victory of the season. He also repeated as the Milwaukee race winner, going to victory lane in 2008 with new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer.

"It seems like almost every week, we're getting faster and faster," Edwards said. "It's really cool to get that first win. Hopefully, it kicks off the rest of the season like it did last year."

2008 Turnaround started at the Mile…. déjà vu?

Carl Edwards' 2008 win at Mile kicked off an impressive second-half run where he won seven of the final 19 races. Can he do it again this season?

"We could go win every race," Edwards said. "That's how we try to approach them. As good as last season ended, it didn't get good until a year ago tonight. All my guys are aware of that, I was aware of that. People were mentioning that to me as I was getting in the car: 'Hey, do you remember last year?' I thought, 'Boy, if we could do that again and get it going, there's no reason we can't have the same success.”

“This win is also for the fans, “Edwards stated, “Man, I’ve been waiting a whole year to do that flip for them.” Edwards won last year’s race but elected not to celebrate in his customary way due to the passing on race day of NHRA’s Scott Kalitta and a late race bump of Clint Bowyer.

The victory was the first of the season for Dan Stillman, who replaced Blickensderfer as Edwards' crew chief.

Kyle “Shrub” Busch finished second, despite leading the most laps (80) for the eighth consecutive race.

“We started in the back, had a good race car, and drove through the field,” Busch said afterwards, “I knew Carl (Edwards) was better than us all night and he just went up there and passed us to win the race. We didn’t keep up with the changes and he got the best of us tonight.”

“I finished second,” Busch continued after his 12^th top ten result of the season left him with a 127 point lead over Edwards in the championship standings, “But I’m not here to finish second. I traveled all this way to win the race and I didn’t win it.”

JR Motorsports' Brad Keselowski finished third. Keselowski led the field twice for 23 laps before making a late race charge to take third place from first-time pole position winner Erik Darnell on the final lap.

“We were strong in the middle and it felt good to get up front and lead some laps,” Keselowski said, “it seems we’re just clicking away these top threes (finishes).”

“This is a great track and I enjoy coming here,” Keselowski stated after posting his second top ten finish in as many races at The Milwaukee Mile. Last June, he scored his first-ever pole position at The Mile, a speedway at which his father Bob and uncle Ron raced USAC Stock Cars, ARCA and NASCAR Trucks on

Polesitter Erik Darnell, Edwards' teammate, finished fourth after rallying in the closing laps.

“We struggled in practice and made some changes which paid off in qualifying,” Darnell said. “It was real tight at the start of the race and we made some more changes.”

“I’ve never been in a race where we made so many changes with the car and we were real good on the short runs,” Darnell continued, describing the late race power moves he made around both Keselowski and Busch to rank as high as second.

“We just got killed on the long runs and that’s what hurt us in the end.”

Darnell started the afternoon strong by claiming the pole in the Race Titled sponsors No. 6 Northern Tool + Equipment Fusion, then paced the opening laps and on one other occasion for a total of 19 laps. His fourth place result is the Beach Park, Ill. native’s Nationwide Series career-best finish to date.

Roush Fenway's Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five

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Sixth through 10th were Rusty Wallace Racing's Steve Wallace, Phoenix Racing's Mike Bliss, Richard Childress Racing's Stephen Leicht, Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday and Braun Racing's Jason Leffler.

Busch saw his series lead over Edwards cut to 127 points, with Keselowski third, 218 out of the lead.

Fun at the "Ole" Race Track.

Heavy rains both Thursday and Friday Nights created several small "Lakes" in the infield. Race Fans are always creative...and with the muggy warm weather... they used these new lakes to cool off.

The lakes were even mentioned on the Speed channel's coverage earlier in the day... Below are photos of fans cooing off in the newly christened "Lake Tretow" in Turn three.

On Race Day….no Rain… Just hot temperatures and great racing at the Legendary “Mile”

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