(Sports Network) - Kyle Busch put on one of his most dominating performances, leading a career-high 415 laps, but Carl Edwards grabbed the lead from Busch with 31 laps to go and held it for his second-straight Sharpie 500 victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Edwards recorded his sixth NASCAR (web|news) Sprint Cup Series victory of the season and the 13th of his career. He also clinched the second seed in the championship "Chase," which begins September 14th at New Hampshire. Busch appeared to be on the way to his ninth Sprint Cup victory of the year, but Edwards nudged him from behind. Busch got loose, allowing Edwards to move underneath him for the lead.

"I couldn't get by him," Edwards said. "I had to ask myself, 'Would he do that to me?', and he has before. That's the way it goes...You keep talking about rivalries. We might have one now."

At the conclusion of the race, a frustrated Busch retaliated by intentionally bumping Edwards on the cool-down lap. Edwards, however, got the best of the post-race ruckus when he spun Busch around.

While Edwards celebrated in Victory Lane, Busch made a trip to the NASCAR hauler for a discussion with officials.

"He hit me in turn one, which got me a little bit loose," Busch said. "Carl's gonna say he's sorry, he doesn't want to race that way; because he always does, you know, Mr. Ed-like. We'll take it and go on. We'll race him that way in the chase if that's the way he wants to race."

Edwards started on the pole and led the first 47 laps, but Jeff Gordon moved ahead of him to lead a lap and grab five bonus points. Edwards reclaimed the top spot the following lap.

Busch moved up to the front for the first time on Lap 55 when Edwards bumped the lapped car of Juan Pablo Montoya, allowing Busch to make the pass.

Busch dodged a bullet on Lap 280 when Dave Blaney spun in turn two and slammed the inside wall hard. Blaney's Toyota shot up the track and then slid down. Busch, running close behind, had to quickly slow down and move to the lower end of the track to avoid Blaney.

Bristol turned out to be a great night for some "Chase" contenders but no so good for others.

Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Gordon completed the top five. All three drivers are currently on the championship "bubble."

On Lap 26, Jimmie Johnson made contact with Sterling Marlin and suffered significant damage to the right front fender of his Chevrolet. Johnson pitted twice for repairs and fell 13 laps behind. The defending series champion finished 33rd.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. went a lap down in the early stages when he had to serve a pass-through penalty. He was black-flagged for passing before the start-finish line at the start of the race, but managed to work his way back in the field and settled for an 18th-place finish.

The second caution came on Lap 195 for an incident involving Marlin, Joe Nemechek and Jeff Burton, who won at Bristol earlier in the year. Burton was running sixth at the time.

"Two cars got together in front of me, and the car behind me just slowed down," Burton said. "It was a typical Bristol wreck." Burton finished 42nd but remained fifth in points.

A multi-car pileup on Lap 216 put a serious dent in Kasey Kahne's championship bid. Casey Mears got turned around after he hit the front end of Michael Waltrip. Mears slammed the wall while several drivers, including Kahne, hit him in the process. Sam Hornish, Jr., Robby Gordon, David Reutimann and Reed Sorenson were also involved in the accident. Kahne finished 40th.

"I just got blocked-in behind a few cars, and some cars in front of me started wrecking," Kahne said. "I got hit from behind, so we just tore the car up pretty good."

Kahne is now 14th in the standings, 56 points behind new 12th-place Clint Bowyer, who finished seventh.

The next race is scheduled for Sunday, August 31st, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.







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