Columbia, Mo. native Carl Edwards won at Las Vegas for his third win in the past five races as he finished ahead of Tony Stewart who picked up a penalty while in the pits on lap 155.

Edwards finished 1.24 seconds ahead of Stewart to claim his first win of 2011. This comes after an early exit at Phoenix and a runner up finish at Daytona. After the race Edwards said, “This means a lot, coming off Phoenix. After last weekend, I had no clue, I just didn’t know how things were going to go from there. You don’t get a good race car like that very often, but I had another one.

Edwards led the last 23 laps of the race after Stewart dragged an air wrench from his stall under caution. The win is Edwards’ 19 career checkered flag.