Notebook: Edwards gets breathing room in Chase race

Notebook: Edwards gets breathing room in Chase race


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Service
(August 15, 2010)

BROOKLYN, Mich.—Carl Edwards had the fastest car at the end of Sunday’s Carfax 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race—he just didn’t have time to drive it to the front.
Nevertheless, by finishing third—his sixth straight top 10—Edwards climbed two spots to sixth in the Cup standings and opened a 266-point lead over 13th-place Mark Martin.
“That makes me feel real good,” Edwards said when he was told of the margin. “I had no clue we were that far ahead now. So what do we have left? I believe it’s Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond. If we can get through Bristol and be 200 points ahead of 13th, then we just go for broke.
“I think of it as 100 points per race is what you need. If we were 300 (ahead) right now), we would really go for it at Bristol.”
Edwards hasn’t won a race since November 2008 at Homestead. Though he didn’t deliver a victory for team owner Jack Roush, who was attending his first race since sustaining serious injuries in a plane crash last month, he was pleased that he and teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth ran 3-4-5 at Michigan.
“Our Fords ran really well,” Edwards said. “We had three in the top five, and it’s great to have Jack back here at the track. I wish we could have got a win for him. If we run like this the next few races and keep competitive in the Chase, it’s going to be great for us and great for all the Ford teams.”

Logano, Newman trade barbs

An accident in Turn 4 on Lap 148, the result of hard—perhaps overly hard—racing between Joey Logano and Ryan Newman, sparked an angry exchange between the drivers after the race.
“Give someone an inch, man,” Logano said.
“No, I gave you the whole racetrack,” Newman replied.
“I was on the bottom and you door-jammed the crap out of me,” Logano retorted. “There’s six lanes up top.”
Newman would have none of it.
“I was six lanes up, and I steered up and tried to miss you, because you couldn’t control your damn racecar,” he said.
“Because I was freaking sideways because you were on my freaking door,” Logano said. “All right, I’ll door-jam you every freaking time I get around you.”
With that, the drivers traded shoves, with Logano delivering the first push.
After the two drivers were separated, Newman delivered a parting shot.
“I’m good,” he said. “I’m just trying to teach the little kid how to drive.”

Engine failure sidelines Kurt Busch

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Edwards finished 1-2-3 and all got momentum boosts heading toward the Chase. Kurt Busch—not so much.
An engine failure on Lap 31 relegated Busch to a 40th-place finish and dropped him from fourth to 10th in the Cup standings.
“The engine just let go in Turn 3,” Busch said. “It was a big surprise. We’ve had great reliability with the Penske engines over the years. It’s tough, because we wanted to do well here in Michigan and get our Dodge in victory lane. You never want big, catastrophic failures like that, so hopefully we can learn from this.
“We wanted a good race today. We’ve got some good tracks coming up—Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond. We’ll be fine. It’s one of those deals where we’re comfortable in points (215 ahead of Martin), but it’s not nice when you have something like this happen.”