The victory was Edwards's second of the season and 15th of his Nationwide career.

But winning in front of his hometown crowd made it even more special for the 28-year-old driver.

"I've been fortunate enough to drive that truck to victory lane in Kansas and two wins here in the Nationwide Series," Edwards said. "There won't be a guy tomorrow having a better day than me. This is unbelievable."

Edwards also won at Gateway in 2006. He joins Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick and Reed Sorenson as repeat winners at the 1.25-mile track.

Pole sitter Jamie McMurray led the first 22 laps before making a stop during a caution. NASCAR planned a competition caution on Lap 21 since rain earlier in the day affected the track.

Joey Logano moved up three positions when he exited pit road the quickest during the first round of stops. Morgan Shepherd did not pit and led the field for the restart, but Logano quickly moved to the outside of Shepherd and grabbed the lead for the first time.

Logano ran out in front for 23 circuits before David Reutimann came on strong and passed Logano for the top spot on Lap 50. Reutimann then built a 3.4- second lead 12 laps later. However, Reutimann's lead was erased when the second caution came for an incident involving Kelly Bires.

Edwards won the race off of pit road, followed by Logano and Reutimann. He pulled ahead from the field after restart. Reutimann grabbed the second spot from Logano just before another caution came for lighting issues in turns three and four.

The start of the race was delayed 20 minutes after a power outage earlier in the evening affected the lighting at the track. Officials had to wait for sufficient lighting to be restored before competition could begin. Meanwhile, teams struggled to work in the dark along pit road for the first 100 laps before lights there came back on.

After Edwards ran out in front for 30 laps, Reutimann caught the defending series champion and grabbed the lead from him on Lap 96. Reutimann once again had a sizeable lead, but a caution flag, this time for Brad Coleman's spin, ended another strong run for the No.99 Toyota driver.

A lightning-fast stop for McMurray put him out of pit road first, while Reutimann fell back several positions to seventh.

Just after the restart, Landon Cassill bumped Scott Wimmer from behind. Wimmer ran into Reed Sorenson and then hit the outside wall on the backstretch. Mike Bliss and Steve Wallace were also involved in the multi-car incident.

"I was on the inside of (Sorenson) and we were racing really hard," Wimmer said after his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was severely damaged. "I think (Cassill) had me just a little bit and got me around...I saw the wall coming pretty quick, but fortunately everything held up."

NASCAR halted the race 25 minutes for track cleanup efforts.

When the race resumed, Logano passed McMurray for the top spot on Lap 124. Carl Edwards moved ahead of McMurray 10 laps later and cut into Logano's lead.

Brad Keselowski was running among the top-10 on Lap 140 when he made a move on the outside of Reutimann, but Reutimann got loose coming out of the corner as Keselowski hit him from behind. Reutimann had a strong car for most of the evening, but the incident ruined his chance at a possible victory.

The sixth caution set up another round of pit stops. Jason Leffler made a two- tire change only and exited the pits first, gaining six positions. Leffler led for nine laps.

Just after the final restart on Lap 146, Edwards passed 18-year-old newcomer James Buescher for second. He caught Leffler and grabbed the lead from him with 49 laps to go. Logano took second from Leffler one lap later. But Edwards refused to let Logano catch him as he pulled away for good.

Jason Keller, Jason Leffler and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five.

McMurray ran into problems late in the race when his engine suffered a broken oil pump on Lap 153. McMurray ended up finishing 27th.

Clint Bowyer finished eighth and left Gateway with a 170 point lead over Keselowski in the series point standings. With the victory, Edwards moved up one spot in the standing. He now trails Bowyer by 201 points.

The next event is scheduled for July 26th at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.