There was an unfamiliar face on the track in Saturday’s Nationwide race – Carl Edwards.

After years of constant double-dipping, he scaled back this year. This was the only Nationwide start so far for Carl in 2012.

Team owner Jack Roush was happy to have him in there – especially after he won.

“This was the first time Carl felt like it was worthwhile for him to run a Nationwide car this year – running the two practices Nationwide and Cup was really hard on him and hard on Kate, I think, for what he would carry home at night. So, anyway, this was a rare opportunity we had to have Carl in a Nationwide car,” Roush said. “It’s a testament to the work the guys do in the shop that they were able to generate another potential winning car out of the inventory of parts that they had and to be able to present it on the race track with almost no practice and being on the front row in competition for the pole, and then of course with Carl’s enthusiasm and his ability he was able to pull it off.”

Edwards was very happy to return to Victory Lane in the Nationwide series.

“This win means a lot. That was a lot of fun. I had a really good time racing out there. I’m really glad that Jack and Ford and Subway and everyone put this together so that I could run this car. Scott did a great job with the car. We had virtually no practice and it almost qualified on the pole and we won the race,” Edwards said. “The car ran really well. I made one pretty big mistake coming to the white flag and Brad got up beside me, but fortunately, we were able to battle and get back ahead of him. It was just a really fun race. I had a good time two runs from the end Kyle and I battled really hard. He can go deep into those braking zones, so we went after it pretty hard. That was a lot a fun. And just overall it was a really good day. The only big mistake was running into Joey there and spinning him out. I felt bad about that, but we were all racing pretty hard for position right then, but, overall, I’m just really grateful for the opportunity and I’m glad we got the win.”

So the question must be asked: Will Edwards get the bug and want to do more Nationwide races later this year or into next year? I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen.

Become a fan of the Facebook page NASCARBeyond

Follow Matt Myftiu on Twitter @MattMyftiu