Edwards pitted from the lead just before a rain shower that caused a 41-minute red flag and had the driver arguing with crew chief Bob Osborne over the decision. But the strategy worked perfectly as the race wound up going to completion. Edwards stretched his last tank of fuel to earn his fourth victory of the season.
"I was really nervous that we made the wrong call there," Edwards said after doing his traditional victory backflip off his car. "Bob's the smartest guy in the world. We were really arguing. We made light of it, but we thought we made the wrong call."
Rain began falling on lap 127 of the 200-lap event and, moments later, Edwards and several other leaders ducked onto pit road. Nineteen other drivers, led by June Pocono winner Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin, who had dominated the first half of the race, stayed on track, waiting to see if the rain might end the race prematurely.
But, despite more threatening clouds and a few raindrops later in the race, the racing continued and Edwards found himself back on top for good when Martin had to pit on lap 187.
Then, Edwards, who made his final stop at the end of lap 166, just had to worry if he had enough gas to get to the end.
He made it easily, beating Tony Stewart by almost 4 seconds -- half the front straightaway on the 2.5-mile trioval. Stewart and third-place finisher Jimmie Johnson, coming off a victory last week in Indianapolis, were both on the same strategy as Edwards. Johnson was one of several drivers who coasted across the finish line, out of gas.
Kevin Harvick, who crashed with Joe Nemechek on the first lap, came back to finish fourth, just ahead of David Ragan.
Kahne wound up seventh and Martin eighth.
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