Archive for the ‘Carl Edwards’ Category

Carl Edwards made it a sweep this weekend at Michigan.

Carl Edwards finally beat Kyle Busch.

Edwards, who has finished runner-up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leader three times this season, won Sunday’s 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

In a Ford, Edwards beat Busch off pit road during the fifth caution and took the lead for good with 18 laps remaining to win his fifth race of the season and 12th career.

I bet it felt good finishing with that #18 car behind him. I have a feeling the Chase is going to be pretty good this year. I still can’t say that I am completely satisfied with NASCAR lately, as I feel like I spend an awful lot of time wondering when there is going to be “good racing”.

Winning on fuel is good. Winning with pit strategy is good. Winning when you’re racing neck and neck to the finish, that’s great. And that’s what I want to see again.

Darrell Waltrip said that winning at Pocono might come down to fuel strategy.

Well, first and second places didn’t come down to fuel, but the rest of the finish did. Several cars ran out of gas on the last lap, including Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

It wasn’t quite the exciting ending anyone would have hoped for (has there been an exciting ending since the Car of Tomorrow debuted?) but it worked.

Congratulations to Carl Edwards for winning, and to Tony Stewart for somehow making it all the way up to second place after mentioning during the rain delay that the car probably wasn’t a top 5 car.

This is the final off-week for Cup drivers, but I wanted to congratulate Johnny Benson, who not only won at Kentucky Speedway in the Craftsman Truck race there yesterday, but for also for taking the series point lead by ONE point over Matt Crafton. Way to go Johnny!

Carl Edwards won the Nationwide race, but I think the bigger story is that Joey Logano finished second. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Logano in the #20 Cup car next season.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Carl Edwards has an impressive showing at Texas, where clearly dominated the race. I congratulate Carl for holding off Jimmie Johnson to cross the finish line. Anyone who finishes in front of Jimmie Johnson is a winner in my book.

Carl Edwards’ signature backflip marked more than his third dominating performance of the 2008 Sprint Cup season.

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took Sunday’s Samsung 500 five laps beyond its scheduled distance of 334 laps, Edwards held off Jimmie Johnson at Texas Motor Speedway to win his third race of the season and the 10th of his career (watch video).

Edwards, who led a race-high 123 laps, crossed the finish line .399 seconds ahead of the two-time defending Cup champion. Kyle Busch ran third, followed by Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. Points leader Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.

Of course, not everyone is happy with those green-white-checkered finishes.

On top of the pit box for the No. 11 Toyota driven by Denny Hamlin, crew chief Mike Ford gritted his teeth as Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway drew to its conclusion.

…

“Green-white-checkers, man. I mean, go back and watch ‘em. They’re just terrible,” Ford said. “You tear up more freakin’ cars in that stupid crap than is needed.”

…

“You tore up more in that than you tore up in the whole other 500 miles,” Ford said. “It’s asinine. It’s not racin’.

I’d rather see them bang up the cars more in those last two laps than see the race finish under caution, where the winner is already determined and it’s boring as hell.

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Last week on Information Salad, I mentioned that I thought something was going on with the #99 team. After hearing the news about the oil reservoir cover being totally absent from the vehicle, I had a feeling that someone did it intentionally. Jack Rousch has said that they have found no evidence that anyone did it intentionally, but that doesn’t mean no one did it intentionally. And for the record, the fact they are not appealing the penalties tells me that they know that too.

Roush Fenway Racing on Wednesday announced that it will not appeal the penalties imposed by NASCAR following post-race inspection of the No. 99 car at Las Vegas (read more).

Inspectors found that the cover of the oil reservoir encasement mounted behind the driver’s seat was off, a circumstance that constitutes an unauthorized aerodynamic modification. NASCAR rules require that the cover be bolted securely to the encasement.

If Jack Rousch was adament that no one did it intentionally, he would have appealed the penalties. Jack Rousch is a man of principle and in this case it’s the principle of the point. If you didn’t cheat, you should fight like hell to convince people you didn’t cheat. Why on Earth would you let it go, if you were so adament it was not done intentionally?

“We have conducted a thorough internal investigation and have found no evidence whatsoever that anyone intended for the bolt/nut fastener to fail to secure the lid for the entire race,” team owner Jack Roush said.

“We have subsequently added protective measures to insure that the lid will remain fastened even if a failure of this type should again occur.”

It just doesn’t make sense to me to let it go as far as penalties are concerned, yet still stand there and say you’re taking action to ensure this “accident” doesn’t happen again. Unless of course that “accident” got a pink slip in recent days.

I know there are many ways to push the limit in NASCAR. But whatever happened to just competing fairly? I’m not saying the #99 team cheated, but, when five Nationwide teams were penalized after Daytona for the same thing, why on Earth would you try to get away with it?

Carl Edwards’ Sprint Cup victory in the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will stand, but he’s likely to lose some of the driver and owner points he earned after NASCAR officials found “an issue” with his No. 99 Ford in post-race inspection late Sunday.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Edwards’ car did not fail post-race inspection. But inspectors did find something amiss.

“We had an issue in post-race inspection with the 99. The lid on the oil reservoir encasement, or the oil tank box, was off,” Poston said. “So we’re going to take the 99 back to the [NASCAR] Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., and if there are any actions that need to be taken, those will be taken and announced next week.”

Earlier this season at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR officials discovered five Nationwide Series cars to have a similar problem during post-race inspection following their season-opening race. Each of the teams eventually were docked 25 driver and 25 owner points.

Poston said the situation with Edwards’ car was not quite the same.

“It was similar. In those cases, the lids were loose,” Poston said. “The lid on the 99 was off.”

Is this a defect with the beloved “Car of Tomorrow” or is it just another case of someone breaking the rules to get ahead in the race? I guess we’ll find out soon.

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Congratulations Carl!

Kevin Harvick won another race and runaway points leader Carl Edwards finally wrapped up his first NASCAR Busch Series championship Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Edwards, who built a lead of more than 800 points in the first half of the season, stumbled through the second half of the year before putting away the title with an 11th-place run in the O’Reilly Challenge. He leads runner-up David Reutimann by an insurmountable 552 points with two races to go.

Read more over at the NASCAR website.

This is one of the stupidest fines and points penalties that NASCAR hands down.

Carl Edwards was docked 25 points Tuesday because his race-winning car failed inspection at Dover International Raceway.

The penalty drops Edwards from third in the Chase for the championship standings to sixth. He’s now 28 points behind series leader Jeff Gordon.

Team owner Jack Roush, who celebrated his 100th win Sunday with Edwards’ victory, also was docked 25 owner points and crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $25,000.

Edwards’ No. 99 Ford was deemed to be too low following post-race inspection. Although NASCAR determined the height infraction was not intentional, the team still was penalized in accordance with NASCAR’s strict inspection policy.

So, even though the car was lower because of events that occurred during the race, and no one did anything intentionally wrong, Carl Edwards was still fined because of NASCAR’s “strict” inspection policy.

Too bad their inspection policy and the rest of their rules don’t take “right” or “wrong” into account, huh?

I still don’t see why, if there is no evidence of intentional tampering and if the fender could have been knocked down by taps from the car behind, there would be a points penalty and a fine.

His car parked on the track because of a late-race red flag, Carl Edwards had time to catch replays on the big screen of the crash that wiped out other Chase drivers.

Edwards could only think about how lucky he was that he would get away from Dover unscathed.

“This place has great potential for disaster,” he said.

Edwards avoided trouble on the track Sunday to win at Dover International Speedway, but he found it in the garage. The No. 99 Ford failed the postrace inspection because the right rear fender was too low, and NASCAR this week will likely hit Edwards with a fine and dock him crucial points.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Potson said there was no evidence of intentional tampering.

I guess this is just one of the many NASCAR “rules” I just don’t get and never will.

Carl’s thumb may have required an overnight hospital stay, but it won’t affect his driving…

Carl Edwards’ handwriting may not look pretty this weekend. Just don’t expect his injured right hand to slow him down in the No. 99 car at Indianapolis.

Edwards arrived in town Thursday wearing a protective brace around his dislocated right thumb, and he plans to wear something similar Sunday to avoid re-injury during the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

As an indication that he’s feeling good, Edwards kept his scheduled signing session at an Office Depot store on the south side of Indy. Office Depot is the car’s primary sponsor.

”It will probably be the ugliest Carl Edwards autograph ever,” he said before the session began. ”The hand is good, and it shouldn’t really be a problem. But when I did it and I looked down at it, it didn’t look right.”

Good luck Carl.