NASCAR: Edwards goes full-tilt at Sonoma

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Carl Edwards won Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup round after a gruelling 110-lap, caution-filled road course race at Sonoma, claiming the first non-oval victory of his career.

Poleman Jamie McMurray led initially until he was passed by AJ Allmendinger on lap nine. Kevin Harvick was the next leader, passing Allmendinger on lap 22.

Harvick was then dealt a strategy blow when the first yellow of the day, for Landon Cassill's engine explosion, came out before he had made his first pit stop. He tumbled to 14th after pitting under yellow, but carved his way back into the lead fight.

Allmendinger and McMurray again swapped the lead before the second yellow, caused by Ryan Truex stalling on the track. As they pitted, Harvick then led again until being passed by Jimmie Johnson, before a flurry of yellows - the second of which was for the biggest shunt of the day when Dale Earnhardt Jr. clipped Matt Kenseth, who piled head-on into a tire wall. He was unhurt.

"My bad –I hit the curb and ran into him," Earnhardt admitted on his radio.

Marcos Ambrose hit the front at a lap 80 restart with a power move on Clint Bowyer, who was the other frontrunning car on a similar strategy to him. Moments later, as Johnson was passing him for third place, Bowyer spun at Turn 11 after contact from McMurray (and a left-rear puncture) and was hit hard by Harvick, effectively eliminating two top cars. Allmendinger was then spun out after also being hit by Earnhardt, and bouncing off Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers.

Only in the last 25 laps did Edwards hit the front, thanks to his Roush team's strategy. Edwards managed to get through the race with only two stops to Jeff Gordon's three, while third-placed Earnhardt visited the pits five times, which meant he had the freshest tires at the end to carve his way through.

Second-placed Gordon attempted a last-corner lunge at Edwards, but the Ford star hung on. Earnhardt finished third, ahead of McMurray, Paul Menard, Kahne and Johnson.

"That's a moment I'll never forget, to be standing in Victory Lane and to have held off Jeff Gordon, with all the success he's had here and in our sport," said Edwards, who did one of his trademark celebratory flips (ABOVE). "It's just really, really special.

"I'm glad there wasn't one or two more laps in the race, because I don't know if it would have worked that way, but it definitely meant a lot to have Jeff Gordon in my mirror."

Gordon blamed himself, saying trying too hard had cost him a shot at the win in the final laps.

"I wish I could have had those last five or six laps to do over again," said the Hendrick driver. "I started overdriving it a little bit trying to catch him and making a few mistakes, and I made one in particular that really cost me. 

"Looked like his car really started falling off those last couple laps, and I might have had a shot at least putting more pressure on Carl to force him to make a mistake or maybe get a run inside of him."