Backstretch Motorsports

By Reid Spencer

MADISON, Ill. (July 19, 2008) – It took three days for Carl Edwards to get to Gateway International Raceway from his home in Columbia, Mo. – on a bicycle.

Once at the track, however, Edwards picked up his pace considerably for Saturday night’s Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race. In the final 55-lap green-flag run, Edwards’ No. 60 Ford streaked away from the No. 20 Toyota of Joey Logano, taking the checkered flag 6.877 seconds ahead of the 18-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing phenom.

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BEACH, FLA. — Fireworks started the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola Saturday night. Fireworks ended the race as well, both on and off the track.

In a wild and wooly finish so typical of races at Daytona International Speedway, Kyle Busch won by a whisker over hard-charging Carl Edwards with a chain-reaction accident behind them sending up a cloud of smoke that covered the track.

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WEST ALLIS, Wis. (June 21, 2008) — All it took to end Carl Edwards’ year-long NASCAR Nationwide Series winless streak was to change crew chiefs.

The defending series champion had gone 36 races without a victory, and team owner Jack Roush decided that was enough. So Roush Fenway Racing swapped crew chiefs earlier this week, with Drew Blickensderfer taking over for Pierre Kuettel on Edwards’ No. 60 team.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s no secret Carl Edwards loves running the 1.5- and 2-mile tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule.

Here’s why:

• Of his 10 career NASCAR Sprint Cup wins, seven have come at tracks measuring 1.5 or 2 miles (the other three came at Bristol, Dover and Pocono).
• Edwards has three wins this season, all at 1.5 or 2-mile tracks.
• Edwards has scored a Driver Rating over 100.0 in eight races this season. Four of those were at 1.5- or 2-mile tracks (the only 1.5-mile track this season that Edwards has not scored at least a 100.0 Driver Rating was Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He had an 86.1.)
• His top three Driver Ratings came at tracks of that length (139.8 at Texas; 135.4 at Auto Club Speedway; 134.5 at Atlanta).

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DOVER, Del. — Same song, different verse.

Points leader Kyle Busch made mincemeat of the competition and Sunday’s Best Buy 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway.

In a race that stayed green for the final 153 laps, Busch gained a total of five seconds over runner-up Carl Edwards on his final two pit stops, built a lead that topped eight seconds and cruised in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a 4.225-second win, his fourth of the season and the eighth of his career.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Coca-Cola 600 – one of the crown jewels of NASCAR – will be especially important to three previous winners for three different reasons:

Kasey Kahne
Kahne is trying to end a winless drought which stretches 52 points races long and, perhaps more importantly, return to the top 12 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

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Darlington, SC — Kyle Busch won the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. By the only method that works — taming the track’s “Too Tough To Tame” reputation with patience and refusing to lose to everything the South Carolina speedway throws at a driver.

First let her stripe you, let her think she’s in control. Watch her take out the competition one by one. Let the new car think it isn’t going to turn through the corners the way you want it to. Get into the wall with the right side 3 or 4, even 5 times.

Overcome a loose lug nut penalty in the process.

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Carl Edwards announced that he has re-signed with Roush Fenway Racing – a multi-year deal that will keep him behind the wheel of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion. In addition, crew chief Bob Osborne is back this week after completing his six-week NASCAR suspension. Edwards spoke about those issues after Friday’s practice session at Richmond International Raceway.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – WHAT’S YOUR CONTRACT STATUS? “I signed my contract yesterday, so I’m staying with Roush. I looked at everything and I talked to everybody and, for me, the number one thing is looking into the future and saying, ‘Where can I win the most races and have the most success?’ I was honored at the people who I got to speak with and I just feel like for me personally this is where I want to be for the near future and we got it done. It’s good. I’m real happy about it. It’s a huge relief. It really wasn’t that painful. Geoff Smith and I get along really well and we just pretty much sat down and he’s really easy for me to deal with. It took us about a week-and-a-half of going back and forth with just little things and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world for the contract I got.”

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Kyle Busch gave fans of the NASCAR Nationwide Series a case of déjà vu as he scored a dominant victory for the second straight week.

After picking up his first win of the season in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series last Saturday at Texas, the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry driver staved off a determined challenge from Carl Edwards to win Friday night’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Busch crossed the finish line .241 seconds ahead of Edwards. The victory was Busch’s 13th in the series and the fourth for Toyota this season. The 22-year-old led 133 laps on the evening.

Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and David Ragan. Mike Bliss, Stephen Leicht, points leader Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann and David Stremme completed the top 10.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 7, 2008) – With his win at Texas Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards joined Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Bill Elliott as active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers to win three of the first seven races of a season.

Johnson did it last year, and went on to win the championship.

Gordon has accomplished the feat three times, following it up with championships in two of those seasons – 1995 and 1997 (he finished second in the final points standings in 1996, the other year he won three of the first seven).
Elliott has done it twice – in 1985 and 1992 – and finished second in the final standings both times.

In other words, Edwards’ performance could lead to the title – it has happened before.

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