Second chance works in Edwards' favor in Bristol

The Busch Series points leader was in front for 147 laps.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) -- Carl Edwards held off hard-charging teammate Matt Kenseth over the final dozen laps to win the Busch Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday.
It was a typical crash-filled Bristol race, with 12 cautions for 103 laps and one red-flag stoppage. NASCAR also confused things with a miscue on pit road that confused most of the field and gave Edwards, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman a second chance.
Edwards used that free pit stop to get fresh tires and drive away to his first win of the season. Kenseth never got close enough to move him, and Edwards beat him to the line by 0.260 seconds.
Appreciative
"I just can't thank Matt Kenseth enough for racing me that clean," Edwards said. "He's so great here and it meant the world to beat him."
Kenseth said he tried to get past Edwards earlier, but couldn't, and wouldn't force the issue.
"This place is tough. It's kind of a give and take race track and sometimes I struggle when to give and when to take," he said. "I got under Carl two or three times and lifted his left rear tire, he chopped me pretty good, so I had to get it out of the gas. I could have stayed in and got him turned around, but I got out of it."
A caution came out with 117 laps to go and NASCAR told its officials to open pit road. But pit road was closed when Busch and Edwards -- the leaders -- passed the entrance. They didn't stop.
But pit road opened seconds later, and the rest of the field did stop.
NASCAR blamed that on a delay in changing the lights on pit road and quickly reviewed it. Officials then allowed Busch, Edwards and Newman to pit and line up where they were originally running when the caution came out.
Admission of blame
"It was a mistake that NASCAR made in this case," president Mike Helton said. "And there's no absolute fix for that. So we felt like the most fair thing to do was to simply say, 'Pit road is open. You can pit if you want to. You don't have to.'
"There's no absolute clean fix, but we felt like that was the most fair fix."
Edwards, the Busch Series points leader, led 147 laps en route to the win.
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