MADISON, Ill. — Night racing is always a spectacle, but nobody expected the theatrics that were witnessed Saturday night at Gateway Int’l Raceway.
After two unusual competition-caution flags and an extended red-flag period, in the end it was local favorite, Columbia, Mo., native Carl Edwards winning the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250.
Edwards’s No. 60 Ford paced the field for 79 of the 200 laps en route to his second victory of the season and the 15th of his career.
“It’s rare for me. There have only been a couple of times that I’ve had a car that dominant at the end of a race,” Edwards said. “I was just cruising around at the end and the car was so good. I am really, really proud of Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and the guys for being able to make the adjustments to make it drive like that.”
Edwards claimed both of his wins this season within the last five races, his first coming at Milwaukee, the first weekend of his pairing with Blickensderfer.
 The latter half of the race was dominated by Edwards, but the first half of the race was, as Joey Logano stated, a throwback to local short-track racing days as lighting issues plagued the 1.25-mile facility.
Just as pre-race ceremonies were wrapping up, electricity around the race track went out. The garage area, media center, the scoring pylon and the caution-signal lights around the track, were all affected, as was the public address system. Despite the hiccup, the race began on schedule.
NASCAR called a competition caution after 20 laps to check the lights, which were back on by that time.
On lap 72, a second competition caution came, this time for lighting issues through turns one and two. After two laps, the race resumed without further incident.
The lighting troubles were caused after one of three phases at a local substation went out.
On lap 117, Landon Cassill made slight contact with the Scott Wimmer entry, sending it into defending race- winner Reed Sorenson and then into the outside wall hard. Steve Wallace and Mike Bliss were also collected.
The red flag was displayed for nearly 25 minutes for track cleanup.
Following a restart on lap 145 after a Brad Keselowski and David Reutimann run-in, Edwards passed Jason Leffler for the top spot on lap 151.
One lap later, Edwards’s Roush Fenway Racing teammate and polesitter Jamie McMurray, who also considers Gateway a home track, slowed with mechanical troubles. He finished 27th after leading 31 laps.
The race stayed green, leaving Edwards unchallenged through the finish.
Without the help of a caution flag and a restart, Logano, back behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after a three-week absence, had nothing for Edwards. He finished 6.877 seconds behind in second.
“I had clean air. I just couldn’t go anywhere. When you got it, you got it and then they hit it dead on tonight,” Logano said.
Jason Keller finished third, his highest finish since 2004 when he ran runner-up at Chicagoland Speedway. Leffler and Keselowski completed the top five.
Clint Bowyer, who finished eighth, has a 170-point lead over Keselowski.