Edwards wins fourth Busch race of year

GLADEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Carl Edwards raced to his fourth NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season Saturday night, easily beating Clint Bowyer in the Federated Auto Parts 300 for the Nextel Cup driver's third straight win at Nashville Superspeedway.

Following the race, Edwards — the runaway leader in the season standings — executed his signature backflip off of his car, this time landing on all fours.

Edwards took the lead with 33 laps to go and beat Bowyer by 1.656 seconds. Jason Leffler was third, followed by Scott Wimmer and Regan Smith.

Edwards, who had been practicing earlier Saturday at Pocono in Pennsylvania for Sunday's Nextel Cup race, started seventh, but nearly missed his qualifying attempt. He arrived at the track by helicopter, jumped out in his race uniform, signed in and sprinted to his car with about 60 seconds to spare.

The victory was the second of the week for Edwards. On Wednesday night, he won the Nextel Prelude to the Dream dirt race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.