Sprint Cup Series: Edwards' Run Could Be Bad News For Competitors

Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR

Jimmie Johnson's fuel gamble paid off with his first victory of the season.

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Carl Edwards didn't win Saturday night, but he may have shown more in defeat than he would have in victory.

Jimmie Johnson played the fuel-strategy game to perfection to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500, but Edwards was the most impressive driver in the field.

Edwards made a remarkable run from the back to the front on the 1-mile oval at Phoenix, where moving through a pack of cars is no easy task.

"That's as hard as I could drive right there," Edwards said. "That was a big team effort. It's good to know we can be that fast on a track that isn't a mile and a half. It bodes well for the rest of the season."

It does bode well for Edwards and the No. 99 Ford team; not so well for everyone else.

Edwards has dominated the intermediate ovals this season, winning three of the four races on those tracks. He probably would have won at Atlanta if not for an engine failure late in the race.

But Saturday was the first time Edwards proved his team can compete for the victory on other tracks. He finished fourth after falling to 34th, one lap down.

Edwards got back on the lead lap with 144 circuits to go and gradually fought his way back to the front. It showed he has the car and the skill to compete for victories on a flat oval that races like a short track.

Edwards also finished ninth on the half-mile oval at Martinsville last month, but without all the drama he overcame Saturday night in the desert. Edwards wouldn't have needed to race his way through the field at Phoenix if not for a disastrous night in the pits.

Edwards had just gone side by side with Jimmie Johnson for the lead when he came to the pits for a green-flag stop at Lap 113. But a caution flag came out while Edwards was on pit road, causing him to go a lap down.

That was only half the problem. Edwards had to restart at the end of the longest line for a rarely called penalty. His front-tire changer jumped over the pit wall too soon.

Edwards had moved up to 10th when another pit road mishap dropped him back six spots. A tire rolled out of his pit box, but Edwards avoided another penalty by wisely waiting until it was retrieved before leaving the pits.

This is the one area that could bite Edwards. His crew had similar problems in Las Vegas, but he won the race anyway.

Edwards ranks ninth in the Cup standings, but would be second if not for the 100-point penalty for the loose oil reservoir lid in Las Vegas.

One more race until Edwards gets his crew chief back. He now has three consecutive top-10s without crew chief Bob Osborne, who is serving a six-race suspension from Vegas.

The Cup teams have a week off before heading to Talladega. Edwards has yet to win a restrictor-plate race. If he runs well there, the rest of the teams need to worry.

-- Terry Blount

Nationwide Series: Thank Goodness For Bowyer, Edwards … Seriously

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- It's probably a good thing that Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards are running the entire Nationwide Series schedule after all. There are plenty of arguments that having Sprint Cup regulars running the full schedule and snaring the championship is bad for what's supposed to be a developmental series, but there's an alternative that could be worse.

That would be for a Sprint Cup regular to win the Nationwide title while skipping a handful of events along the way to focus on NASCAR's top series.

And if it weren't for Bowyer and Edwards, Kyle Busch would stand a strong chance of being the Nationwide Series' worst nightmare. Because as talented as Busch is, and as strong as his Joe Gibbs Racing team is, it's easy to envision a scenario in which he'd win the title while running fewer than 35 races.

It still could happen. After all, Kevin Harvick in 2006 and Edwards last year each locked up what was then the Busch Series title with several races left in the season, but at least they took the green flag every time it waved. As it now stands, though, Busch isn't planning on running the entire schedule.

If he sticks to that plan, the title likely will come down to a battle between Bowyer and Edwards and their respective Richard Childress Racing and Roush Fenway Racing teams. Busch, though, could still finish as high as third in points, considering Harvick finished fourth last season while starting just 26 races.

Busch was again the class of the field at Phoenix under the lights on Friday night, leading 133 of 202 laps for his second straight win with the No. 18 JGR team. That lifted him to third in points, 106 behind Bowyer. Edwards, who finished a strong second in his best run of the season, is just 24 points out of the lead heading to Mexico City.

And don't count out Busch just yet. At this point, his heart clearly isn't into the idea of trying to run the entire schedule. But things have a way of changing in NASCAR, and it wouldn't be shocking if Toyota and JGR made it worth it for him to go for the title.

"The consideration [of running the full schedule] is there, for us it's a race-by-race deal," Busch said. "If I go out and win these next eight races in a row, we might re-evaluate.

"It's great to be able to come out and race in the Nationwide Series. I have such a blast. As I said before, our concentration is on our Cup effort. … We've got some work to do on that side to get further up in the points and stay there. If this will follow along, maybe we'll keep going"

Winning eight straight races might be a stretch, even for Busch. Then again, he easily could have at least two more wins this season if he hadn't blown a tire at Las Vegas and broken a shock mount at Atlanta.

Busch has led 604 of the 1,206 laps he's completed through eight events, but he's failed to complete 262 laps. If he'd avoided the early-race wreck not of his making at Bristol, Busch might well be leading the points.

For now, though, he's in third, and NASCAR officials might escape the unpleasant scenario of trying to find a way to make it sound like a part-time Nationwide Series champion is good for the sport.

-- Mark Ashenfelter