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Carl Edwards Survives Caution-Riddled Bristol And Lands His Fourth Bristol Win

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 11:33 PST, Apr 17, 2016

Just eight races into the 2016 season, Carl Edwards scores his first win. This is the fourth time Edwards has won the Bristol race. He previously went into the victory lane during the years 2007, 2008, and 2014. Racing fans agree this is a phenomenal win considering three of his teammates — Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin — all had tire troubles and other misfortunes during the race.

“There was so many different things happening there — different things happening at different times. I got to work on my restarts though; man, Kurt (Busch) had those things figured out. This is just great, man, just awesome. Now we’re in the Chase, and we can have some fun.”

His teammate Hamlin won at the Daytona 500 this season and Kyle Busch has two wins under his belt at the Texas Motor Speedway and the Martinsville Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. managed to finish the race in second place after he experienced a non-start at the green flag because he had no power. Unfortunately, he had to pit his vehicle before the first lap was even completed. This put him two laps behind everyone else from the start.

“We got a lot a luck on those last several restarts and being able to start on the outside. We didn’t have a car to be able to run in the top five, but we caught cautions at the right time and were able to get the laps back. The car was about a 15th, 10th place car. Just lucky on those last restarts.”

Kurt Busch, rookie Chase Elliott, and Trevor Bayne took third, fourth, and fifth place. Coming in fifth in the Bristol was Bayne’s best win since back in 2011 when he won the Daytona 500. Matt DiBenedetto was spotted on the pit road with eyes filled with tears as he finished in sixth place, which was the best place he had ever gotten in a race, according to USA Today.

Matt Kenseth, who has won the Bristol four times during his career, took an early lead in the race. Unfortunately, a flat tire caused him to hit a wall. This wreck resulted in him going from first place to 28th place. Kenseth pushed on to continue the race only to experience a second flat tire with less than 200 laps of the race to go. This time, his vehicle ended up behind the wall. The 2016 season has not been good to Matt Kenseth as he has only had one top ten finish this year despite driving fast cars.

“I’m going to put a smile on my face and get ready for Richmond.”

Kenseth wasn’t going to let his bad luck keep him from preparing for the next race of the season.

With 150 laps to go, the Bristol had 10 cautions. This is just one less caution than what the rain-marred 2015 race had. Most of the problems for the drivers came during the second turn. Fortunately, Carl Edwards was not one of them.

Sporting News reported that Carl Edwards was in the lead of the race with just 20 laps to go. This was when Edwards ran into a lapped traffic problem. It was with 15 laps to go that the race started to get interesting. This was when Michael Annett spun after he was sideswiped by Kevin Harvick. This was the 14th caution of the day.

With just 10 laps to go, Regan Smith smashed into a wall. It seemed as though the biggest challenge for Carl Edwards at this point was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who was currently in fourth place. With just five laps to go, Carl Edwards was able to jump back into the lead with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. chasing right behind Edwards.

On lap 355, Carl Edwards was still in the lead when Kurt Busch flew right past him. Unfortunately, Kurt Busch got snagged and Carl Edwards was able to take the lead again.

[Photo by Matt Hazlett/Getty Images]

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