Edwards wins wet one in Bristol

After rain delayed the start of the Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway by about an hour and 45 minutes on Sunday and then red-flagged it for more than three hours after 124 laps were completed, the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Carl Edwards got out front by staying out during a caution with 78 laps to go and remained up front to claim the win.

The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished second to give RFR a one-two finish, while Richard Petty Motorsports teammates Aric Almirola in the No. 43 Ford and Marcos Ambrose in the No. 9 finished third and fifth to give Ford four finishes inside the top-five.

"How about Ford?" Edwards said in victory lane. "They've done so much in this sport. They make the greatest cars on the road, and for them to finish 1-2-3-5, that's a big turnaround from the other night."

Tony Stewart finished third in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after starting the race from the 37th spot.

"To start 37th and end up fourth, I'm pretty excited," Stewart said, comparing the finish to a win.

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Matt Kenseth restarted with the lead when the race resumed on lap 125, but lost that lead to the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kurt Busch on lap 153. Kenseth then sustained significant damage to the rear of his car when he was hit by the No. 33 Circle Sport Racing Chevrolet of Timmy Hill during a caution on lap 156.

After repairs, Kenseth restarted 29th. While Kenseth worked his way back up toward the front, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch, the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota of Clint Bowyer and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne spent time up front.

Kenseth got back to the lead on a restart following a lap-276 caution and remained up front when he took only two tires during a caution on lap 331. He lost that lead to the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Larson on the restart. With 92 laps remaining, Kenseth made contact with the wall and never recovered.

The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick got off pit road first during a caution on lap 394 to restart with the lead, but relinquished the top spot to Edwards when Edwards stayed out during the next caution.

"That's a gutsy call with all the tire trouble," Edwards said of crew chief Jimmy Fennig's decision to stay out. "Goodyear makes great tires. We didn't have trouble at the end, but it was just a bad matchup with the track."

Harvick's race ended with smoke and fire after contact with the wall. with about 50 laps remaining.

As Edwards led the way, Stenhouse and Almirola swapped second back-and-forth before the caution lights malfunctioned and came on with two-and-a-half laps remaining. Under the caution, rain returned, ending the race.

"The Eco Power oil was getting a little hot under cautions there, but everything held together and we were able to come home with our first top-five of the year," Stenhouse said.

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin finished sixth, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon was seventh, Kahne finished eighth, and the No. 55 of Brian Vickers was ninth. Larson rounded out the top-10.