On the west coast, wild and crazy NASCAR races on road courses go way back to the now closed Riverside Raceway, kind of an off road race and a driving challenge for teams to use up their racecars in a totally different way.

Twice a year the NASCAR Sprint Cup series goes left and right over the pair of road courses at Watkins Glen, NY and at Sonoma, CA.  For years, many driver and teams complained that road courses were too hard to navigate when the majority of nearly forty Cup races are held on oval tracks.

Now, with tons of relearning, many of today’s NASCAR drivers look forward to the racing at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma where, in this year’s event Carl Edwards claimed his first road course win of his career in front of a packed house of sun tanned spectators.

Edwards’ victory for owner Roush Fenway Racing means that a five-race winning streak for Hendrick Racing and Chevy has been disrupted – at least for the time being. It’s the first time that Edwards has won a Cup Race on the 10-turn, 1.990-mile Sears Point circuit at Sonoma.

NASCAR veteran Jeff Gordon finished second, as Edwards led him on the final lap.  “That’s a moment I’ll never forget, to be standing in victory lane and to have held off Jeff Gordon with all of the success he’s had here and in our sport,” said Edwards.  “I grew up watching Jeff Gordon go through those esses and watching how he drove his car, so to be able to hold him off like that means a lot,” he added.

Our awesome photographers Jeff and Mike Burghardt spent the weekend at the beautiful Sears Point track and the NASCAR gallery of photos they sent in will show you the 3,400 pound stock cars tossing and turning, banging, jumping, skidding and running off course by star NASCAR drivers on their way to the checkered flag, some with ripped sheet metal.

Here are the top ten finishers with their racecars.

1. #99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing 2hrs 51mins 30secs after 110 laps

2. #24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports + 0.591s

3. #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Hendrick Motorsports + 3.300s

4. #1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates + 6.052s

5. #27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing + 7.213s

6. #5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports + 8.986s

7. #48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports + 9.385s

8. #9 Marcos Ambrose Richard Petty Motorsports + 10.654s

9. #16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing + 11.904s

10. #15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing + 13.238s