Hank Kurz Jr., THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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RICHMOND, Va. - Clint Bowyer had already assured his spot in the Chase for NASCAR's biggest championship, and he looked as if he was about to pad his lead in another one.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Steve Helber

Carl Edwards stands next to the trophy after winning the Emerson Radio 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008.

Carl Edwards had another idea Sunday night.

Passing Bowyer for the lead with 28 laps to go then pulling away through three restarts the rest of the way, Edwards won for the fourth time this season in the Nationwide Series and cut slightly into Bowyer's prohibitive points lead.

The last restart came with eight laps to go and teammates Scott Wimmer and Bowyer separating Edwards from the fast car of Denny Hamlin, but Edwards easily pulled away.

"I didn't know it was going to be that good," he said of the finish, commending his team's pit work. "They struggled a bit, and then they came back and they were awesome at the end."

Wimmer finished second, Bowyer third and Hamlin was fourth, while Edwards, despite having driven 400 laps in sunshine and 250 more at night, did his traditional back flip to celebrate.

The victory, combined with a bad night for Brad Keselowski, allowed Edwards to climb into second in the points race, but he's still 207 behind Bowyer with just seven races remaining.

Keselowski, who finished 21st, is third, 279 points behind the leader.

For most of the night, Bowyer was running away virtually unchallenged. He took the lead from young sensation Joey Logano after seven laps of the Emerson 250 and had a lead of nearly four seconds wiped out by the sixth of nine caution flags. He lost the lead to Wimmer on pit road, but regained it on lap 218, holding it until the slight wiggle on the 223rd lap allowed the hard-charging Edwards to slip past him on his way to Victory Lane.

"Clint was doing such a good job and he was just a little free and he was hanging on for all it was worth and he just wiggled that one time and that's all I needed," Edwards said.

It was the only time Bowyer was passed for the lead, and the only one that counted.

"I just got too loose, but I'm not going to let that ruin my day," Bowyer said. "I had a good day, but that was a bummer. It just shows you how close it is - one little slip-up."

Only hours earlier, he locked down the fifth seed in NASCAR'S 10-race Sprint Cup playoffs with a 12th-place run in the postponed Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.

The race marked the series debut of prominent Sprint Cup team owner Richard Childress' grandson, Austin Dillon. He started 31st, spun out after 96 laps and finished 26th.