By Bill Carr

Special to the News-Herald

A sold-out and standing-room-only crowd watched at Langley Speedway Saturday as five-time track champion Greg Edwards returned to his winning ways during the track’s Grand Reopening Night late model stock cars race.

After being closed for the 2016 race season, Langley reopened for racing on Saturday, and 18 late models took the green flag for the feature race.

The pole sitter was Nick Smith with a fast qualifying 15.987 seconds at 90.566 mph. Edwards qualified on the outside pole, missing the top spot by only 12 thousandths of a second.

Smith took a quick lead in the race, with Edwards close behind and then taking over the lead on Lap 8.

Two cautions slowed the fast pace, but Edwards proved to be strong on the restarts. Smith was able to close on Edwards in lap traffic, but as Edwards was able to get clear of those cars, he drove to a commanding lead.

Behind Edwards were spirited battles with Justin T. Carroll, Matt Waltz and Mark Wertz for positions two through five. Edwards continued a strong lead to the checkered flag to capture the win.

Edwards, whose father, Danny Edwards Sr., recently passed away, said he was racing for the elder Edwards and for the late John McMasters, who had served on his crew.

“I really wanted to win this for those guys, and I was going to give it everything I had and ran that race as hard as I could for them,” he said.

“I knew they were riding with me, and I thank God — that’s the most important thing. I’m glad to be back here at Langley Speedway.”

Rounding out the top five were Justin T. Carroll, Mark Wertz, Matt Waltz and Nick Smith.