Edwards holds off Busch, Gordon to win Prelude

ROSSBURG, Ohio -- Carl Edwards won the Nextel Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice dirt late-model race Wednesday at Eldora Speedway.

Results

Prelude to the Dream

Pos.	Driver
1.	Carl Edwards
2.	Kyle Busch
3.	Jeff Gordon
4.	Ken Schrader
5.	Clint Bowyer
6.	Kasey Kahne
7.	Matt Kenseth
8.	J.J. Yeley
9.	David Reutiman
10.	Mark Martin
11.	Aric Almirola
12.	Dave Blaney
13.	Kenny Wallace
14.	Kevin Harvick
15.	Juan Montoya
16.	Denny Hamlin
17.	Red Farmer
18.	Ryan Newman
19.	Cruz Pedregon
20.	Mike Wallace
21.	Bobby Labonte
22.	Tony Stewart
23.	Ray Evernham
24.	Ron Capps

• DNS: Elliott Sadler, Bill Elliott

Edwards won the 30-lap race on the half-mile oval by .305-of-a-second over Kyle Busch. Jeff Gordon finished third.

"That's just unreal," Edwards said. "To win this race in front of so many folks is unreal. Everyone I know is watching it at home on HBO Pay-Per-View. They have people who bought it and they are all going over to their house. I'm sure everyone enjoyed it. I can't tell you how much it means to me to be able to support the Victory Junction Gang Camp and doing something this fun. It's awesome."

Gordon, who made his first appearance at Eldora since 1991, led Lap 11 and challenged Edwards throughout most of the event.

"It's great to be back at Eldora Speedway. We've done some midget races and some silver crown races in the past and I've run a winged sprint car here, too. It was a good racecar and I was just playing catch-up all night long," Gordon said. "I was just trying to learn this type of a car but in the feature I was having a blast.

"I got the lead and I was good once I got it. I was just so shocked when I got it. I was running the middle and Carl got back by me on the bottom. It was a great race and that's the most important part. I just lost a little bit of momentum there and I wasn't able to get it back."

Edwards led all but two laps en route to victory, but had to contend with Gordon and Busch throughout much of the event.

"I've sweated out a lot of finishes in a dirt car when you can't see behind you," Edwards said. "The guy from Barry Wright racecars was giving me hand signals down there and he finally quit giving me signals. I knew they were right there on my tail.

"When Jeff got by me the first time I thought, dang, this isn't good. And then he slipped up a little bit and I got back by him and I thought this is fun. When it happened again and again I just couldn't believe it. (Continued)