Second Half Starts With Second Half of Stand-Alone Season
Starting Saturday at Gateway, the next three races for the NASCAR Nationwide Series are at venues void of combination races with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, however, does have preliminary one-day shows the next two Fridays at Gateway and O’Reilly Raceway Park.

AUDIO Podcast: Full Gateway Pre-Race Coverage

Brad Keselowski remains the standings leader, a post he’s manned following the last 11 races. Carl Edwards is second, 227 points back. That’s the closest he’s been to the leader since the series raced at Charlotte in May. Then, he was in fourth, 163 points behind Keselowski.

But Edwards, a native of Columbia, Mo., who considers Gateway his home track, has been a second-half challenger the last two seasons. The 2007 series champion was 192 points behind Kyle Busch at this stage last year and 188 behind Clint Bowyer in 2008. Last year, four of his five wins were collected in the second half. In 2008, he won six of his seven total races after Race No. 18.
Edwards has two wins at Gateway, in 2006 and ’08.