Sprint to the finish
Winless in 2009, frustrated Edwards is looking to turn close calls into victories
LOUDON, N.H. - Carl Edwards hasn’t won a Sprint Cup Series race this season, but he can rattle off at least two he feels he could have.
Take Texas. Edwards pushed his No. 99 Aflac car past Jeff Gordon with 38 laps left and appeared to be in prime position to pick up his third straight win at Texas Motor Speedway. He went into pit road with the lead but a poor stop left him in 11th on the way out. Rather than voice his anger at his crew, Edwards bit his tongue after eating a 10th-place finish in a race he could have won. Gordon, who took the victory, summed it up: “Sometimes the fastest car wins and sometimes the best pit crew gets the win.’’
Fast forward to Talladega. Edwards was in front with a lap left - the lone Ford among three Chevys - and even though Brad Keselowski was practically dangling on Edward’s muffler, it looked as if Edwards would be impossible to pass. So Keselowski decided to go through him, squeezing low inside the yellow line, smashing into his rear end and sending Edwards flying into the fence, his car aflame. Keselowski won his first race. Edwards never reached the finish line, and again he chose his words carefully.
“NASCAR just puts us in this box,’’ Edwards said. “Brad did a great job. Congrats to him on the win. But they put us in this box, and we’ll race like this until we kill somebody.’’
With wins in those races, Edwards would have one more than points leader Tony Stewart, as many as Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, and one fewer than wins leaders Kyle Busch and Mark Martin.
Edwards won nine races a year ago. That’s nine of his made-for-the-highlight reel, victory-lane back flips. Nine reasons he quickly became one of the faces of the sport. But the only gymnastics he’s been able to do this year came a week ago after a Nationwide Series win in Milwaukee.
Still, he’s fifth in points with four top 5s and eight top 10s, and that consistency is a more telling sign for Edwards.
“I’m not too worried about the fact that we haven’t won, because I feel like we’ve performed [well] in two or three different races,’’ Edwards said. “If we were running 20th it would hurt real bad, but I feel like we’re right there and we’re doing what we need to do and the wins will come. I’ve been through this deal where you can’t screw it up and it seems like it’s just easy to win. They just fall in your lap. And I’ve been through it where you’ve got the fastest car and you just can’t get a win. So you just keep going and it all balances out.’’
Each passing week, he’s had to pick at an explanation. There’s luck, or lack thereof. There’s the “technological leapfrog’’ - the idea that because the No. 99 car was so strong last year, Edwards’s team stood pat, while other cars worked to surpass them. Then there’s heightened expectations, something Edwards faced in 2006. He exploded onto the scene with four wins in 2005, but didn’t win in 2006.
“We had huge expectations,’’ Edwards said. “I learned right there, this is a tough sport. You can’t rest on anything you’ve done. You’ve got to keep working.’’
Last year, Edwards and his crew chief Bob Osborne set a goal of 10 wins and a series championship. He was one win shy and finished second in the Chase for the Cup. This year, rather than inflate expectations, the goal was to simply win a championship.
Considering the recent success Edwards has enjoyed, it’s hard to find sympathizers.
“He’s been close,’’ said Kyle Busch, who is ninth in the points, but scattershot since winning in Richmond May 2. “He’s had cars that have been capable of winning a few races this year. You look at Pocono, he was really good there. A couple other times he was really good as well, but just hasn’t hit it. With us, we’ve just been mediocre. We’ve been top-10 cars and can’t even get into the top 10. So, you know, what’s wrong with us? We’re having the same problems in our camp, too.’’
With Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, and David Ragan, Roush Fenway Racing has accumulated 25 top 10s and 13 top 5s but only one pole and two wins.
Biffle was a top-10 finisher 17 times last year, with 12 top 5s. He has eight top 10s in 16 starts this year, five times finishing in the top five, and sits eighth in points, feeling as if he’s one of the few drivers on his team performing better than a year ago.
“If you look across the organization, our season has been a tick better than all the other guys compared to last year,’’ Biffle said. “So we feel good about that. We feel like we can still win, but as an organization, we’re off a little bit.’’
Kenseth, who went 38 races (including the entire 2008 season) without a win before taking a rain-shortened Daytona 500 in February, gave the team its two wins. But he’s 10th in points and his No. 17 car hasn’t finished in the top 10 since May 31 in Dover. Edwards may be his teammate, but he’s not Kenseth’s responsibility.
“I’ve got my own problems to worry about,’’ Kenseth said. “That’s really on the bottom of my list of things to worry about. He won nine races last year. We’ve got our own things to worry about. We all work together really well during the week, really well during practice, share all our information. All our crew chiefs are working together great. But when you’re on the racetrack on Sunday, we’re all out there racing for wins ourselves.’’
With 10 events left, before the Chase, Edwards is racing for points, trying to stay among the top 12, but wins count for 10 bonus points apiece in the Chase. There’s still a chance a driver can go on a tear.
“Ten to go?’’ said Gordon, second in the points. “I still feel like someone can rack ’em up in a hurry.’’
If Edwards happens to be that driver, he’ll be more than happy.
“I can’t wait,’’ he said. “It’s going to feel good when we get a win.’’
He’ll likely be doing back flips.
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. 