Carl Edwards raced to his fourth NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season last night, easily beating Clint Bowyer in the Federated Auto Parts 300 in Gladeville, Tenn., for the Nextel Cup driver's third consecutive win at Nashville Superspeedway.

After the race, Edwards -- the runaway leader in the season standings -- executed his signature backflip off of his car, this time landing on all fours.

He took the lead with 33 laps to go and beat Bowyer by 1.656 seconds. Jason Leffler was third, followed by Scott Wimmer and Regan Smith.

Edwards, who had been practicing earlier in the day at Pocono in Pennsylvania for today's Nextel Cup race, started seventh, but nearly missed his qualifying attempt. He arrived at the track by helicopter, jumped out in his race uniform, signed in and sprinted to his car with about 60 seconds to spare.

Actually, Edwards took a plane and two helicopters to get to the track on time. He said he wouldn't have made it had it not been for team owner Jack Roush's new plane.

"The new jet is a little faster than his old one because we wouldn't have made it in that," Edwards said. "And we'd still be flying in my plane. So it was nice of Jack to spend the money for the extra speed. If we didn't make it we were going to start in the back and make the best of it."

IRL

Sam Hornish Jr. finally got in front and the defending IndyCar Series champion stayed there to get his first victory of the season. Hornish led 159 of 228 laps in a dominating race and held off a late charge from a lucky Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick to win the Bombardier Learjet 550 last night in Fort Worth, Texas -- his IndyCar Series-best 19th career victory.

"It feels awesome, especially to come to a place like Texas, where I've had so many good memories," said Hornish, who won by only 0.0786 seconds. "We weren't having a bad year, we just didn't get the things to click."

ARCA

No need for a reshoot for Chad McCumbee in his first start for Petty Enterprises. McCumbee nailed his first take and won the 80-lap Pocono 200. McCumbee, who once portrayed Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the TV movie "3: The Dale Earnhardt Story," overcame a blown tire to win the ARCA race at Pocono Raceway the day before he makes his Nextel Cup debut.

With Kyle Petty taking a summer break to broadcast for TNT, McCumbee will pinch-sit and drive the No. 45 Dodge in today's Pocono 500. McCumbee, who drives full time in the Craftsman Truck Series, said he's barely had time to think about the whirlwind that put him in the Cup car.

McCumbee, who practiced in the Cup car earlier in the day, rallied from an early blown tire and caught Dexter Bean with four laps left.

Formula One

Lewis Hamilton is a phenomenon. The 22-year-old Mercedes McLaren driver started his F1 career with five consecutive podium finishes -- a third in the opener in Australia followed by four consecutive seconds. The first black driver in Formula One history took another big step, winning his first F1 pole ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. He took the pole with a lap of 1 minute, 15.707 seconds in the last of three 15-minute qualifying sessions.

Champ Car

Pole-sitter Justin Wilson has some jitters about Champ Car's first standing start. "It's just pretty much one in four the car will stall and you don't know what you did wrong," Wilson said. "So that makes you nervous."

Still, Wilson likes the idea that Champ Car is introducing the standing start from the straightaway today for the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway. Traditionally, the open-wheel series has used rolling starts.

Grand-Am

Alex Gurney passed Scott Pruett with 25 minutes to go and teamed with Jon Fogarty to win the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series' Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Gurney drove the No. 99 Gainsco Pontiac Riley across the finish 7.069 seconds ahead of Pruett's No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley and completed 167 laps in the six-hour timed race on the 3.4-mile circuit at an average speed of 94.199 mph.