Carl Edwards Wins Milwaukee Nationwide Race

Carl Edwards, left, celebrates with his team after winning at the NASCAR Nationwide auto race at the Milwaukee Mile, Saturday, June 20, 2009 West Allis, Wis. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)

(AP)

Carl Edwards didn't perform his usual celebratory backflip after winning at the Milwaukee Mile last year. It just didn't seem right after hearing the news that drag racer Scott Kalitta had died in a crash earlier that day.

But Edwards was back to backflipping after yet another successful one-day getaway to Wisconsin on Saturday night, winning his second straight Nationwide race at the Mile — and his first race in the series this season.

Now he hopes a win at Milwaukee will lead to a hot streak, just like it did last year.

"Yeah, we can," Edwards said. "We can go win every race. That's how we approach them."

Edwards and fellow Cup commuter Kyle Busch both took a brief break from their Sprint Cup duties in California to fly more than 2,000 miles and race in Milwaukee on Saturday.

Edwards took the lead from Busch with 44 laps to go and wasn't significantly challenged the rest of the way.

"Carl got to do a backflip," team owner Jack Roush said. "How do you get any better than that?"

Busch finished second, followed by Brad Keselowski.

And Busch, whose points lead over Edwards was reduced to 127, wasn't happy about it.

"Well, duh," Busch said, when asked if he was disappointed. "I finished second. I'm not here to finish second. I traveled all this way to win the race and I didn't win the race. I guess the bright side of it is that I'll get home early and get to bed early."

Roush, a licensed pilot, flew the plane from California to Wisconsin — with a stop in Colorado for fuel and sandwiches. Another pilot was scheduled to fly them back to California after the race, presumably so they can get some sleep.

"We'll be going back the same way, kind of," Edwards said. "Only we'll have a trophy, and that feels really good."

Rookie Erik Darnell, a part-time Nationwide driver who qualified on the pole earlier Saturday, was running second in the late stages of the race but slipped to fourth at the finish.