BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Saturday's Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway featured a controversy, a crash fest and a crop of frustrated competitors.

Somehow, Carl Edwards still managed to triumph.

The Busch series points leader led a race-high 147 laps on the way to his first win of the season and his fourth top-10 finish in six career Busch starts at the high-banked Bristol oval.

Edwards, who leaves with a 197-point lead over Kevin Harvick, fended off Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth and fast-closing third-place finisher Kyle Busch after taking the lead from Ryan Newman on lap 215 of the 300-lap race.

"To be able to hold off somebody as great as Matt Kenseth at a place like this means a lot to me," Edwards said. "That made the win very special."

The race was slowed for 103 laps by 12 cautions -- many triggered by multicar spins or crashes -- including a yellow flag on lap 183 that set the stage for a controversial NASCAR ruling.

With the field circling the track under yellow, several drivers -- including top six-runners Newman, Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr. -- ducked onto pit road for routine service after NASCAR told teams the pits were open. Other frontrunners, including leader Busch and second-place running Edwards, stayed on the track because the light and flag at the entrance of pit road, the visual sign for drivers to know if the pits are open, signaled the pits remained closed. By the time other drivers reached the entrance, the light had turned green.

NASCAR elected to allow the leaders who didn't pit to make their stops and reset the running order as it stood before the caution.

"During that caution, we were seeing one thing," NASCAR President Mike Helton said on ESPN's broadcast. "We were seeing that pit road was open, but the signal that the drivers see down at the opening of pit road -- the flag and the light -- were still red because of the radio traffic and everything that happened very fast."

Edwards said he believed officials made the right call. Kenseth was skeptical.

"Some of us pitted and then all of a sudden the light wasn't working and they opened it back up or something," Kenseth said. "So it was a little bit confusing, but the first time it was for sure closed. After that it was hard to keep track because there was four or five laps of pitting or not pitting there."

Kenseth was more critical of Ryan Newman, who Kenseth passed for second on lap 265.

"Right before the last pit stop I saw Ryan catch me so I moved up and got out of his way so he didn't burn up the tires and just gave him some room like I thought we always raced. Then when I got back to him 25 laps later after a pit stop, he raced the heck out of me and knocked my fender off. ... So sometimes that's hard to figure out."

Busch, who overcame two spins and led twice for 89 laps, had a harder time figuring out the driving of Mike Wallace, who was just in front of the leaders when Edwards spun Busch while the two raced for second on lap 232.

"I'm not upset at Carl one bit," Busch said. "It's just the fact that lapped cars don't give way to the leaders when they're already a lap down. [Wallace] was pathetic today. ... He was just being a complete moron."

Steve Wallace, the 19-year-old son of Rusty Wallace, also left disappointed after a multicar crash on lap 120 ended any hopes of a good finish. He had led the opening 32 laps after starting from the pole. Wallace finished 31st.