Carl Edwards led 123 laps en-route to his 10th career victory and 2nd at Texas, and series-high 3rd of the year, and first since the penalty at Las Vegas that suspended Edwards' crew chief Bob Osborne for 6 races.

In victory lane, he insisted that his Vegas win came in no part due to the oil tank lid being off.

"The reason we won at Vegas is because of all the hard work that the guys at the shop and the engine department, it's not because of that oil tank lid," Edwards said. "That's what it's about. We're driving. It's fun. It's fun when you get out of the car and your hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel. That's good."

Edwards had to hold off Jimmie Johnson on a green-white checkered finish after Martin Truex Jr.'s engine failed with 7 laps to go. Edwards was able to pull away in the two quick laps to win easily. Rounding out the top-5 were Kyle Busch, who won the Nationwide Series race the day before, Ryan Newman and Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin.

While Edwards has three wins in seven races, Hendrick Motorsports as a whole still has none, and Texas was a struggling effort for the organization, aside from Johnson.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the pole for the event, led early but fell off the lead lap and a disappointing 12th, while Casey Mears was two laps down in 22nd at the end of the day. However, Jeff Gordon had possibly the worst race of his 16 year career.

Gordon started the race 18th, but quickly fell out of the top-30 and fell a lap down. On lap 109 he was in danger of going a second lap down when he lost control of the car coming off turn 4 and spun into the outside wall.

"I can't remember the last time we struggled this bad. We're just going to see if we can get back out there and do some testing," Gordon said after the incident. "We've been way off, and we've got to find it because we can't go through the whole year like this."

Gordon ran a few more laps before finally calling it a day, finishing 43rd for just the second time in his career. The first came in 1999, at Texas.

Michael McDowell, a rookie driving for Michael Waltrip Racing, finished 33rd. However, the 23 year old McDowell may have been lucky to have just been alive, let alone racing on Sunday.

In qualifying on Friday, McDowell's car got loose heading into turn 1 on his second lap. As McDowell corrected it, the car snapped right and collided with the outside retaining wall head on.

The car then barrel-rolled down the speedway banking all the way to the exit of turn two where the car final came to halt. Just minutes later, McDowell emerged from the car under his own power, and waved to the crowd as he walked away from the wreckage.

"I feel great, nothing broke," McDowell said. "I didn't lose consciousness. I felt every roll down the hill."