Carl Edwards Now 2-For-3 This Season

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Deb Williams

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 2, 2008) – Carl Edwards led four times for 86 laps in Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and overcame a pit road penalty to claim his second straight victory this season, solidifying the fact that Roush Fenway Racing is back on track with its COT program.

Team co-owner Jack Roush has admitted the Concord, N.C.-based operation got behind in its COT program, but by winning two of the season's first three races, the team has demonstrated it's once again a threat at every track.

“Starting right after Bristol [last year] we designated a tractor-trailer unit,” Roush said. “We hired people. We had a test team and we went to Iowa and we went to Wisconsin. We went to Nashville and we went to Virginia, and we took a fresh focus on the road races and when we got to Sears Point, we weren’t as far behind as we were at Bristol, and by the time we finished up in the Chase, I felt, and the guys felt, that we had pretty much caught up. But the year was behind us and I had wasted it because I misjudged what I needed to do, so I listened more carefully and I watched more carefully over the winter and I think that we’re caught up. I certainly don’t feel that we have an advantage, but I think that on any given Sunday there are probably 20 cars that could win the race and four or five of them are our cars and I feel proud of that.”

Edwards led early in the race, but when a pit road penalty was assessed on lap 110, the Missouri native found himself in the rear of the field. He spent the next 80 laps threading his way through the field, passing Kevin Harvick on lap 190 for second. Five laps later Edwards sailed past Dale Earnhardt Jr. and into the lead. By lap 210, Edwards had constructed a 1.544-second advantage over teammate Matt Kenseth.

During the seventh of 11 caution periods, Edwards pitted for four tires, but one of the team's tires rolled across pit road. Crew chief Bob Osborne immediately pleaded his case to a NASCAR official that a crewman had rolled the tire towards the pit wall, but a a cameraman had prohibited the crewman from catching the tire. NASCAR reviewed the video and concurred, allowing Edwards to restart the race in third, behind Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr., respectively.

“The crew member that was supposed to catch it right away ran up to the box and said what happened, so I jumped down and spoke with the official about it,” Osborne explained. “In that situation, when you think you didn’t actually break a rule, you have to try to keep a level head, so I did my best to do that. I wanted to go ballistic for sure, and yell and scream and take a punch and do whatever I had to do to get my way, but I kept a level head the best I could and the officials were very good in the situation, also. They did what they had to do and reviewed the film and gave us a judgment call in our favor.”

Edwards regained the lead for good on lap 238, but then had to hold off Earnhardt Jr. through two restarts in the final five laps. The final yellow flag also resulted in a 17-minute 57-second red flag on lap 264 of the 267-lap race while the 1.5-mile track was cleared.

“Bob [Osborne] and I were real nervous about the restart because we thought we maybe didn’t have enough fuel in the tank to be able to have fuel in the pickup when it restarted,” Roush said. “We know how dumb it looks to start off into turn one and have your engine quit because you don’t have fuel in the pickup, so I gave Bob the choice. I said, ‘You know, you’ve got the choice here between running around the middle of the race track and having your tires in good shape, or running around the apron and maybe picking up trash, but knowing you’re gonna have fuel in your tank.’

“So, they had a discussion about it and agonized over it, as I was, and Carl [Edwards] did a nice job of scrubbing the tires and throwing the fuel to the right side of the pickup. I think if he hadn’t done that, he might have had trouble on that restart. Anybody could have had trouble, but we were certainly nervous about the fuel.”

Edwards admitted he, too, was worried about the restart.

“If it wasn’t enough, Bob [Osborne] and Jason Hedlesky, my spotter, both reminded me how good he (Earnhardt Jr.) was on restarts all day, so that didn’t help,” Edwards said. “But I felt like we got a gift there with that one restart where it looked like maybe Dale spun the tires, but I knew it was gonna be pretty tough, the second one. I felt like I got a perfect restart and he got one that was just as good. I mean, he was right there.

“Definitely, that’s a high-pressure situation. It doesn’t get any tougher than that, but it was fun. It worked out.”

Edwards' first-ever victory at LVM gave him the point lead for the first time in his young Cup career. Ford has now won six of the 11 Sprint Cup races at LVMS, but it was only the second time that Edwards has posted back-to-back victories. The first time was in 2005 when he won Atlanta and Texas. It was the first time a Ford driver had won back-to-back races since Matt Kenseth accomplished the feat in August 2006.

Jimmie Johnson's 29th-place finish ended his streak of 10 straight lead-lap finishes that dated to Dover last September.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now has two days of testing at Phoenix International Raceway before moving to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the March 9 Kobalt Tools 500.

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