Carl Edwards has visited Victory Lane more than any other driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway, but he has some catching up to do in the Nationwide Series.

Edwards, a three-time Sprint Cup Series winner at Texas Motor Speedway, will make his 10th Nationwide start here in Saturday’s O’Reilly Challenge and continues his pursuit of his first NNS win at the speedway as he looks to slice into the 215-point advantage of championship leader Kyle Busch.

Edwards, the 2007 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion, came close to earning his first NNS win at Texas Motor Speedway in last year’s O’Reilly Challenge when he finished .253 of a second behind Busch – a margin of victory that ranks fourth on Texas Motor Speedway’s closest Nationwide Series finishes. Edwards has three top-fives finishes in his other eights starts – third in the 2007 O’Reilly 300 and ‘05 O’Reilly Challenge, and fourth in the ‘05 O’Reilly 300.

Edwards has been a strong qualifier and that may bode well for him judging from past history. He captured the pole for last year’s O’Reilly Challenge and has started in the top six in seven of his nine starts. Another solid qualifying outing could help his cause. Three of the past four Nationwide Series winners at Texas Motor Speedway have started fourth or better and out of 17 Nationwide races, 11 winners started among the top 10.

“Texas is fun,” Edwards said. “The Nationwide cars are fast; that’s the number one thing. The corner speeds are really high. The thing we need to do at Texas is to go there and beat that number 18 car (Busch). That’s what we’re doing right now. We’ve got the guns loaded, trying to go gain points.”