LONG POND, Pa. - Carl Edwards is no one-hit wonder, and that comes as a relief to crew chief Bob Osborne.

"Winning the second race, everybody says that a lot of times that's the hardest one," he said Sunday after Edwards took the Pocono 500. "Some people will say you win the first one and that's beginner's luck or something like that. You win the second one ... then it's no-holds-barred at that point. It's time to win and keep winning."

They'll try again next Sunday in Michigan, where Edwards will jump in the car a surprising fourth in the Nextel Cup standings. And he's extremely confident, thanks to his supporting cast.

They certainly didn't let him down at Pocono Raceway.

"I think the biggest help today, though, was my crew," Edwards explained. "They dropped the jack after that first pit stop and we pulled out and passed three or four people on pit road. I thought, `Wow, if we have a day like this on pit road the whole day, we're going to win this race.' That's the way it worked."

But they had some prerace help from a computer game Edwards had been playing in his hauler before he raced to his second victory of the season and career.

"It's a NASCAR game that you can buy on the shelf," he said. "Coming to a new track and spending time on one of those things really helps."

His Ford led 45 of 200 laps and beat the Chevrolet of Brian Vickers in a race that ended under caution on the 2.5-mile triangle.

While he was winning, Edwards lost the points lead in the Busch Series because a rainout Saturday night in Nashville prevented him from racing there Sunday. Reed Sorenson took the Busch lead and Edwards fell to fourth.

When he didn't race in Nashville, Edwards jumped on a plane piloted by car owner Jack Roush, who nearly died a few years ago when he crashed into a lake in Alabama. The flight back Saturday proved more adventurous than the race because an airport near the track was fogged in.

"I stayed up until 4 in the morning practicing missed approaches with Jack Roush, which, by the way are scarier than the tunnel turn," Edwards said. "My heart was pounding."

Eventually, Roush diverted to Scranton-Wilkes-Barre International and landed without incident.

"I have more and more trouble getting people to fly with me," Roush said.

Edwards set a Pocono record for winning from the deepest in the field after starting 29th. Terry Labonte held the record by winning from the 27th position in 1995.

It was the seventh victory for Roush Racing in 14 races this season, but its first here since the team entered the sport in 1988. Roush's cars had 11 previous second-place finishes at Pocono.

Roush Racing, led by Greg Biffle with four victories, and Hendrick Motorsports, have combined to win all but two of the races.

Jimmie Johnson, who swept the races here last year and was trying to become only the third driver to win three in a row on the mountaintop, finished sixth and increased his points lead to 123 over Biffle.

Biffle finished 30th.

The gearing rule being used at certain events was in force, making this the first Pocono race in many years without drivers downshifting to gain quick acceleration exiting the sharp turns. The rule is designed to cut rpm and reduce the number of engine failures.

There was just one of them among the 43 cars in this race on a hot and humid day when cut tires were the main problem for the drivers. Both Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in numerous times. Most of the cut tires were on the left front wheels, due perhaps to setups used to counter the lack of shifting.

Edwards had some help others lacked. Most of it came from Michael "Fatback" McSwain, crew chief for the team of Ricky Rudd, which buys its motors from Roush-Yates Engines.

"Fatback stopped me about halfway through the race," Roush said. "He told me to tell Carl to beware of the curbs. Ricky figured that whenever he bumped the curb he was hurting his sidewall."

Pocono and the road courses in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Sonoma, Calif., are the only venues where downshifting made the cars go faster through the turns. Drivers will continue to change gears on the road circuits.

Third in the $4.75 million race was Joe Nemechek in a Chevy. Next came the Chevy of rookie Kyle Busch and that of Waltrip. After Johnson came Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray.