BRISTOL, Tenn.

Carl Edwards took his first celebratory back flip of the season and easily stuck the landing.

“I considered not doing it,” he said. “I haven’t done one for a while.”

He earned that acrobatic moment because his No. 19 Toyota gripped Bristol Motor Speedway much better than his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Sunday.

Edwards avoided tire issues that plagued his teammates and took off on the final restart to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on the half-mile bullring. In fact, he made it look easy.

Starting on the pole for the second straight week, Edwards’ Camry led eight times for 276 of 500 laps en route to his first victory since September at Darlington and fourth at Bristol. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was second, followed by Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott and Trevor Bayne.

Edwards’ flawless day contrasted the right-front tire problems endured by teammates Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin after all of them started in the top five.

Busch, the defending series champion and points leader coming in, had trouble throughout the race. He finally exited after his car smacked the wall on Lap 259 and sustained heavy damage, failing to finish a race for the first time since June at Michigan.

“I just kept getting tighter in the long run, not sure why that was,” said Busch, who had two other tire failures and was penalized for speeding off pit road. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Kenseth led three times for 142 laps and seemed to be one of the few drivers capable of challenging Edwards before his day ended early after he cut a right front tire a second time and hit the wall.