Notebook: Edwards exercised restraint but still owes payback to Kyle Busch

Notebook: Edwards exercised restraint but still owes payback to Kyle Busch


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

FONTANA, Calif.—The talk started at Phoenix last month, after Kyle Busch held off Carl Edwards to win the Nationwide Series race there.
Edwards raced Busch cleanly during the closing laps, resisting the impulse to bump him out of the way. After the race, both drivers made reference to Edwards owing Busch a shot for a previous incident.
In last Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol, Edwards had another chance to use his bumper but again refrained from doing so. Busch won the race, with Edwards finishing second. Afterward, however, both drivers mentioned Busch still might have payback coming his way.
There’s history between the drivers that predates an incident in February’s Cup race at Phoenix, where Busch bounced off the curbing in Turn 3 and knocked Edwards’ pole-winning Ford into the wall.
That hit was unintentional. What upset Edwards initially was contact he sustained on a restart during last November’s Nationwide race at Phoenix.
“He tried to flatten my fender,” Edwards said. “We talked about it, and I told him then that I owed him one. I had kind of let that go—until he ran into me at the Cup race. We talked about it the next day. I was pretty pissed off about it.”
The drivers talked again in Edwards’ transporter at Las Vegas, a week after the wreck in the Cup race. Edwards, who is one point behind series leader Kurt Busch, figures the Phoenix wreck cost him about 28 points and deprived him of what might have been a commanding lead after four races.
“It was a good talk,” Edwards said of the discussion at Las Vegas. “It was fine. All this talk is talk, but the reality is that I didn’t wreck him at Bristol. If I could have gotten to him with one or two laps to go, I might have moved him out of the way, but I’m not going to intentionally go try to ruin his day or anything. It’s not like that. I just feel like the least he can give me is one little spot at the end of a race.
“But really, truly, the deal with Kyle doesn’t keep me up at night.”
Busch suggested to Edwards, if he intended to exact revenge, that he do so in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte in May, an exhibition event with no championship points at stake.
Roush gets a new customer—TRG Motorsports
TRG Motorsports, which has been fielding Chevrolets for Sprint Cup rookie-of-the-year candidate Andy Lally, will switch to Ford before the April 9 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, team owner Kevin Buckler confirmed Friday.
TRG will purchase its chassis from Roush Fenway Racing and its engines from Roush/Yates Engines.
TRG is perhaps best known for its success in the sports car ranks, having won the GT class in the Rolex 24 at Daytona for the fourth time in January.
“TRG has a fantastic pedigree and a great history in sports car racing,” said Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing. “We’re pleased TRG has decided to make this switch to Ford. It says a lot about the quality of our Fusions and the performance of the FR9 engine.”
Drainage problems again plague track
Even though the rain stopped Friday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway, drainage problems in Turns 1 and 2 at the 2-mile track prevented the Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars from running in their scheduled practice sessions.
“Weepers” are nothing new to the speedway. During a Cup race here in February 2008, NASCAR was forced to postpone the event to the following day when attempts to keep seeping water from flowing across the track failed.
On Friday, the track used the same approach that ultimately corrected the problem three years ago—sawing grooves in the asphalt designed to channel the water from the racetrack.
At 5 p.m. ET, NASCAR released the Cup cars for practice, but less than five minutes into the session, Kyle Busch crashed off Turn 4, with his No. 18 Toyota coming to rest in the infield grass.
Busch radioed that the track was still wet. He will go to a backup car for Sunday's Auto Club 400.