Edwards kept pedal down

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - He won the Nationwide and Sprint Cup season finales, but wound up runner-up in both series championships by a combined 90 points. Still, it hardly qualified as a lost weekend for Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards.

Saturday night, Edwards won the Ford 300 finale, but was second to Nationwide champion Clint Bowyer by 21 points.

Yesterday, Edwards won the Ford 400, but was bridesmaid in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship to three-peater Jimmie Johnson.

"This gives me a lot of confidence for next season, so it was a good weekend," said Edwards, 29, of Columbia, Mo. "Second in both series is not first, but it's definitely not something to be ashamed of. I'm proud of what we did this year."

Edwards recorded three of his victories in the last four weeks to give Johnson a run for his money and eight Nationwide Series wins to push Bowyer.

"The thing that's there about the two championships, they're not at the same place," noted car owner Jack Roush. "All the trips Carl's made back and forth across the country, and of course, David Ragan, Clint Bowyer, and others did the same thing.

"But those trips, that's a young man's game to be able to travel all night and get in the race car that you haven't been in, in some cases, and drive it to great effect and trust what people have done when you weren't there. It's amazing."

Edwards entered yesterday needing to make up a 141-point deficit to Johnson. He scored a maximum 195 points after winning the race, earning 5 bonus points for leading a lap and leading the most laps. The only time he seemed to flinch was when a small bird nearly flew through the window net of his car as it roared down the frontstretch.

"I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and it turned and went right by the window," he said. "If that bird would've come through the gap in the window net and hit me in the chest, I don't know what I'd have done."

Change is hard
Before climbing into the orange No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for the last time, Tony Stewart shared a poignant farewell with Joe Gibbs Racing, posing for a team photo on pit road and then hugging each crew member. "I'm not excited about not being with these guys next year, but I am excited about what I'll be doing next year," said Stewart, who finished ninth in the race and will be departing JGR after 10 seasons to head up his own two-car team, Stewart Haas Racing . . . Yesterday also marked the last race for Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates as separate teams. Next season they will merge into Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing and field Chevrolets for Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola, Juan Pablo Montoya, and a driver to be named. "I think it is good for both teams to try to do that," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who left the family business to drive this season for Hendrick Motorsports. "It gives those guys a good opportunity to try to get through the season financially. Chip Ganassi is a racer. They really need somebody like that. I just hope that they move forward and make some things happen. It is tough this year, tough next year, especially for all the guys trying to find money. That is the biggest problem."

He's no test case
Roush, who at one time toyed with the idea of building a test track, was asked if those plans took on any added significance after NASCAR announced a ban on testing at all sanctioned tracks. "I have neither the money nor the inclination to build a test track," Roush said . . . Although he led once for 16 laps, Jeff Gordon wound up winless for the first time in 14 years after he came from 37th to finish fourth in the race and seventh in the Chase. "It wasn't from a lack of effort that we didn't win any races or [weren't] more competitive in the championship," Gordon said.

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.