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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Brad Keselowski isn't running a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. His car owner brings his team to the race track when he can.

They're the perfect combination at Talladega, a track known for rewarding underdogs.

Sunday, Keselowski charged toward the front and, after a bump with Carl Edwards, took the lead for the first time seconds before crossing the finish line. Edwards, meanwhile, flew into the catchfence, injuring seven fans.

Keselowski drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team in the Nationwide series. He's scheduled to run seven Cup races this season to preserve his rookie status for whenever he moves to Cup. Sunday was his fifth career Cup start.

"Can you believe that!'' he shouted when he entered the media center after the race.

Car owner James Finch, who is in the construction business in Panama City, Fla., has a Nationwide team and runs a partial schedule in Cup. Both teams are based out of a shop in Spartanburg, S.C. He employs about 25, nothing like the 500-plus who work for Hendrick Motorsports.

Keselowski pulled the winning move when he went under Edwards to pass as they neared the finish line. But Edwards came down on him.

"It was up to him on whether he wanted to run me down or not and he did,'' Keselowski said of Edwards.

Keselowski held his line. They hit. Edwards' car spun, went airborne and bounced off Ryan Newman's car before heading into the fence.

"I was here to win,'' Keselowski said. "I've got no other reason to be here than to win.''

Said Edwards: "He goes low &ellipses; and I didn't realize he got that far, so I went low to block a little bit and he was already there, so I turned around backwards. That's what Brad is supposed to do.''

NEEDED FINISH: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s runner-up finish was his second top-10 finish in the past four races and gives his team a lift heading into next weekend's race at Richmond International Raceway.

"I can't wait to see what the points look like so we can start working toward next week and try to have a good run,'' he said. "We usually put a pretty good show together at Richmond and we'll see if we can't add to this.''

Earnhardt climbed three spots to 15th in the points. He's 45 points out of 12th place — the final spot for the Chase. Earnhardt has climbed nine spots in the last six races.

NEW LEADER: Kurt Busch, who placed sixth, took the points lead after Sunday's race. He took the top spot from Jeff Gordon, who was involved in the 14-car wreck on lap 7 and finished 37th. Busch leads Gordon by five points. Jimmie Johnson is third, 64 points behind Busch. Tony Stewart, who is fourth, is the only other driver within 100 points of Busch. Stewart is 67 points back.

STRONG FINISH: Marcos Ambrose finished fourth, one off his career-best, while rookies Scott Speed (fifth) and Joey Logano (ninth) each recorded their best Cup finish. "I was at the right place at the right time,'' Speed said.

TIRE TESTING: Goodyear will return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a tire test Wednesday to complete work that rain interrupted last week. Goodyear also has scheduled a tire test at that track for June 15-16 and plans to have about a dozen teams test there. Goodyear officials hope to select the tire that will be used for the Brickyard 400 based on that test.

PIT STOPS: There were 57 lead changes among 25 drivers. Kyle Busch led a race-high 42 of the 188 laps. &ellipses; Winning car owner James Finch dedicated the victory to the family of Neil Bonnett. Finch noted that it was in his car Bonnett died in a crash at Daytona in 1994.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com