LAS VEGAS -- Carl Edwards arrived here with a hot hand and, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. found out, he was not about to play it safe and fold.
Edwards charged back from an early pit-road penalty and held off Earnhardt on two late restarts Sunday to win the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
Edwards also won the rain-delayed race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana last week, giving his Roush Fenway Racing team two wins in the season's first three races.
"This is an amazing couple of weeks," said Edwards, 28, who also led the most laps, 86, in the 267-lap race. "I was just trying to hold off Dale at the end."
But Edwards' win came with a potential hitch: In a post-race inspection, officials found that the oil tank in Edwards No. 99 Ford was missing its lid, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said.
The car will be taken to NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further inspection, said Poston, who disclosed the matter after Edwards and team co-owner Jack Roush held their victory post-race news conferences.
Poston declined to speculate on why the part was missing or whether it could have fallen off.
"If there are any actions to be taken, we'll make that announcement as we normally do next week," he said.
Edwards' crew chief, Bob Osborne, declined to comment pending NASCAR's further review.
It was the ninth victory of Edwards' career and his first at Las Vegas. But Roush Fenway overall has a stellar history here, winning six of the 11 Cup races held at the speedway just north of the Strip.
The victory in front of 153,000 also gave Edwards the early series points lead, the first time he has led the standings since the Missouri native joined the series full time in 2005.
Earnhardt was second in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Edwards teammate Greg Biffle was third and Kevin Harvick fourth in a Chevy prepared by Richard Childress Racing.
"I wanted a shot at Carl, but he was just so strong," Earnhardt said. But Earnhardt, who was 40th in Fontana because of an early crash there, said that "after last week I just needed to get that kind of a [second-place] finish."
The race, which had a track-record 11 caution periods, was decided in the last three laps after Earnhardt's teammate Jeff Gordon was involved in a severe crash.
