KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Clint Bowyer wants to come home and win so badly, but the Emporia, Kan., native will have to wait until at least today.

Bowyer finished second in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, moving his string of top-10 finishes at his home track to four straight. But a win again eluded him with Denny Hamlin leading the final 43 of 200 laps for his fourth Nationwide Series win of the season.

“When you come back home, all you can ask for is hopefully be fast and run up front,” said Bowyer, who also finished second at last year’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway. “It means so much to me to come back here and have so much support people show me. It’s a lot of fun to be able to try to put on a show for them, try to win. You feel like you are winning for them.

“It’d be a helluva party if we ever did.”

It wasn’t all bad news for Bowyer.

His second-place finish increased his series points lead over Carl Edwards to 196 points with just five races remaining. Edwards battled an early engine problem before rallying to finish fourth.

Edwards dropped as low as 38th during the first half of the race, and for a moment, the Columbia, Mo., native thought his day was over.

“I thought the motor was blown up at one point,” Edwards said. “But it just kept running.”

During the early run, the field was chasing polesitter Kevin Harvick.

Leading 88 of the first 93 laps, Harvick’s day came apart when his alternator gave way. He managed to stay near the top and reclaimed the lead on lap 152, but it lasted just two laps.

Marcos Ambrose assumed the lead after that until a pit stop gave way for Hamlin on lap 158. The No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota led the rest of the way.

Hamlin’s only challenge came on restart with 36 laps remaining. Behind a three cars at the tail end of the lead lap, Hamlin had to negotiate those challenges, including a lengthy battle to put David Stremme’s No. 64 safely in his rearview mirror.

“(Stremme) was just running so close to my door,” Hamlin said. “I just think he was trying to stay on the lead lap. I understand that for sure, so you can’t blame him too much.”

After clearing Stremme with just more than 20 laps to go, Bowyer couldn’t close the gap and settled in for another runner-up and an increase in his points lead.

His next chance to win at the 1 1/2-mile track he calls home comes in today’s Camping World RV 400. Bowyer starts 24th needing a solid finish to in the third of 10 races in the Sprint Cup’s Chase for the Championship.

Bowyer trails first-place Edwards by 106 points.

“We keep knocking on the door, we’re going to get our win here,” Bowyer said. “And it’ll be that much more special.”

Assistant sports editor Ross Martin can be

reached at rossmartin@npgco.com