KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Carl Edwards’ day nearly ended on the first lap of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 Saturday when he clipped the wall on Kansas Speedway’s second turn and fell to 33rd in the 35-car field.

But a record 10 cautions and 166 laps later, the Columbia, Mo., native was doing a backflip off the side of his white No. 99 Superchips Ford onto the Speedway’s lush grass in celebration of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory.

“It’s unbelievable. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t cry after the checkered flag,” said an ecstatic Edwards, who instead of doing the customary victory burnout, cupped his ears to the sellout crowd of 80,000 and pulled off a flawless flip.

“I just never in a million years thought I’d get to race here. So to win here and see the crowd’s reaction was unbelievable.”

But Edwards’ Ford failed inspection after the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 because it did not meet the minimum height requirement. NASCAR confiscated parts of the truck and planned to return them to its research and development center in North Carolina.

NASCAR officials said it was possible the truck failed inspection because of damage from the early accident.

After getting spun out by pole-sitter Dennis Setzer shortly after the start, Edwards pitted to fix the body damage on his right side.

By lap No. 30, Edwards, who was runner-up to teammate Jon Wood here last year, already had moved back inside the top 10. Ten laps later, he briefly made it back up to his qualifying position — second.

Finally, on lap No. 146, Edwards — who also won at Daytona earlier this year — overtook Matt Crafton, then held off second-place finisher Bobby Hamilton through two more cautions to record his fifth career victory.

“I was pretty sure it was going to be a bad day after that first-lap incident,” Edwards said. “I don’t think it was anyone’s fault. We were both probably racing just a little too hard, and Dennis got loose, which happens.”

In fact, it happened to Setzer — the current Truck Series points leader — on the next lap when he was involved in a seven-car crash.

Setzer, who fell 31 laps down before re-entering the race and finished 25th, said he wasn’t worried about the points standings.

“It’s way too early to be points-racing for us,” said Setzer, who saw his 131-point lead over Edwards fall to 34. “We just want to win races at this point.”

So, too, did Hamilton, but he said he didn’t have enough to challenge Edwards down the stretch.

“We’d get fast a couple of laps, and then he’d even it out,” said Hamilton, who closed his points gap within 61 of Setzer. “I would have needed more time. He drove a good race.”

Rick Crawford, who suspected much of the record 44 laps under caution came from a lack of practice time, finished third.

“I learned a long time ago that in order to finish first, you must first finish,” Crawford said. “But I looked more in the mirror than I did ahead of me.”

Apparently so did Edwards, who admitted he was very nervous down the home stretch of “the biggest race of my life.”

“I was panicking because I thought maybe we didn’t really win this race,” said Edwards, who said later Saturday night he was going to race on a dirt track with his dad in Lebannon, Mo. “I thought there was something wrong with my truck when I pulled in to stop and do a backflip, because I heard this noise. I shut the engine off, and it was the crowd.”