- Carl Edwards was the top Ford driver in the Nationwide Series race in Nashville, Tenn., finishing third in his No. 60 Fusion. Edwards moved up one spot in the standings to second place, just 11 points behind leader Clint Bowyer.
Edwards, who was going for his fourth consecutive victory at Nashville Superspeedway, has finished in the top 15 in all six Nationwide Series races this year. The third-place showing was his best of the season, and his third top-five in six series races this year.
“We did our very best in that Miracle-Gro Fusion, and we just were not as fast the whole weekend as we have been here in the past,” said Edwards. “Scott [Wimmer] is a good guy. It’s good to see him get a win. But, yeah, we really wanted to make it four in a row.”
Kelly Bires, driver of the No. 47 Fusion, also had a strong performance with a fifth-place finish. Bires spent nearly the entire race contending for the victory as he ran 222 of the 225 laps in the top 10. Bires moved up two spots in the standings to ninth place.
“The guys did a great job preparing this car and getting it here,” said Bires, following his first career top-five. “It’s been fast ever since we got on the track. I think we probably were a top-two car here today but we just a bad day on pit road it cost us a lot of spots on the race track. Overall, we’re getting better. That’s what we came here to do, finish in the top 10, but we got a top-five out of it. We look to improve next week.”
Bobby Hamilton Jr. also joined Edwards and Bires in the top 10 with a 10th place effort. Colin Braun made his first start of the season in the Nationwide Series and came out with a 15th-place finish in the No. 16 Fusion. It was the second Nationwide Series race of Braun’s career.
“These guys definitely race at a little higher level than some of the truck guys do,” said Braun. “Instead of 10 guys that were racing pretty aggressively, you have 20 guys that race aggressively. It makes it a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I think I can go back to racing my truck and it might not seem as aggressive as I thought it was before.”
Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will compete at Martinsville, Va. The NHRA will compete in Houston, Texas, while the Grand-Am Rolex Series will return to action in Homestead, Fla.