A Hot, Unforgiving Brickyard

It was blisteringly hot and tropically humid in Indianapolis this weekend.  The air temperature reached into the 90s.  It often approached 120 inside the cars, even hotter when the cars were stationary.

Carl Edwards, as well as his Gibbs teammates, were fast in practice and qualifying.  Carl finished the first practice in 6th, the second and final practice in 5th, the first round of qualifying in 4th, the second round of qualifying in 3rd, and the third and final round of qualifying in 2nd.  Following that upward trajectory, it was only logical to anticipate that he would finish the race in 1st, right?

Although he began the race on the front row, he fell back to 6th place before the first lap was over, 7th place before the tenth lap was over.  But from there, he gradually recovered, gaining back one spot at a time, until on lap 64 he was back in the 2nd spot.  He was able to stay there for quite some time during lengthy green flag runs, clearly having one of the strongest cars in the field.

Cautions picked up with about 25 laps remaining.  While during previous restarts he had been the only car to even approach Kyle Busch's lead car, when the green flag flew on lap 134 he fell back from 2nd to 5th.  In conversation with Dave Rogers, his crew chief, Carl indicated that the outside lane was slick.

Less than 20 laps later, the field was restarting again.  Once more Carl was on the outside, this time in 4th place.  To get away from the slick outside line, he took the first opportunity to dive down into the inside lane, thinking that would solve his grip problem.  It was a good theory.  It just was not an accurate theory.

His car got loose in tight quarters, and he spun out.  Not only did he slam into the outside wall hard, he also collected a number of other cars.  The Stanley Toyota was damaged too badly to continue, so the 19 crew ended their day less than ten laps before the scheduled end of the race.  Sadly another DNF.  Once the race ended, he was listed in 35th place.

While he maintained the 3rd spot on the Chase grid, he fell back two positions in the drivers' standings, from 4th to 6th.  Good thing he has already clinched a spot in the Chase. 

While we feel badly that Carl did not contend for the victory and his chance at kissing the bricks, it is good to remember that he climbed out of that car and walked away without so much as a scratch.  He moves on to race another day.  Kudos to everyone responsible for the safety features that protect our favorite driver and his colleagues.

Goodbye Loudon, Hello Chase!

This is my 19th Carl Edwards blog, so I had hoped he would win all three practices, all three rounds of qualifying, and the pole, lead all 301 laps, and finally drive his SportClips Toyota Camry into victory lane.  It did not quite go as planned.

The car showed evidence of speed during practice, finishing the three sessions in 2nd, 1st, and 8th.  And he showed good long-run speed, flashing the 2nd fastest 10-lap average during the final practice session.  During the first round of qualifying, he posted the 9th fastest time, easily moving on to the second round.  But in the second round, his time was 13th fastest, 0.01 behind 12th place.  So he did not make it into the third and final round, settling for the 13th starting position, and at a track where position is critical because of how difficult it is to pass.

To complicate things even further, the team received their fourth warning of the season during inspection.  The penalty for that infraction is to lose the right to choose their pit stall based on their qualifying position.  So instead of being the 13th team to select a stall, they were 40th and last, getting the leftover stall.  That left them sandwiched between Ryan Blaney's #21 car and Alex Bowman in Junior's #88.

With two less experienced drivers and a large number of cars maintaining positions on the lead lap, Carl and his team found themselves in tight quarters.  One time Alex Bowman clipped the corner of Carl's car when trying to exit his pit stall.  Another time, Blaney's position in his stall had the 19 team blocked in, so Dave Rogers called an audible.  He changed what would have been a two-tire stop to a four-time stop, because they could not get out of their stall anyway, leaving them further back than they otherwise would have restarted.

Out on the track during much of the race, Carl's position ranged from a high of 4th to a low of 17th.  The better positions were often the result of adjustments made to the car followed by digging to gain spots on a restart.  The poorer positions were mostly the result of difficulties on pit road.  Not only did they struggle with the cars on either side of them, but the 19 crew had its own struggle when a tire got hung up on the fender.  But other than those situations, Carl mostly seemed to hang between 7th and 13th.

It was a typical Loudon race, with long green-flag runs at the beginning of the race, followed by a flurry of cautions as the race wound down and the drivers wound up.  The attrition rate during those last few cautions seemed to indicate that Carl might end up with a top ten finish after all.  But no.  On lap 284 out of 301, several cars ahead, someone checked up.  That was followed by Ryan Newman getting into Carl who got into Kasey Kahne who got into Kyle Larson.  Larson's car went sliding through the grass, clearly taking the worst of it.  Newman sailed through the mess pretty much unscathed.  Carl had to take his car down pit road a couple of times to get new tires and adjusted fenders, but he managed to stay on the lead lap.  When the race resumed on lap 290, he restarted way back in 23rd.  With only 11 laps left, he did not have much time to recover, but he did advance a few spots, finishing the day in 20th.

In spite of that disappointing finish, he did maintain the 3rd spot on the Chase grid and 4th in the drivers' standings.  And it is official; Carl is now firmly in the Chase!  His spot is clinched as a result of the race at Loudon.  Comparing his points with the number of races left before the Chase gets underway, mathematically he cannot fall out of the top 30.  The best news of the weekend!

His teammate Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag, moving the Gibbs organization into position for the third most wins in the Cup series, eclipsing the Roush organization.  Quite an accomplishment, given what a short period of time JGR has existed, as compared to the lifespan of the other organizations. Once the race was over and the television show moved into the interview portion, the broadcasters had the chance to talk to Coach Gibbs about this accomplishment as well as how this year's successes set them up for the Chase.  During this interview, one of the announcers said something like "you have done well with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Matt Kenseth."  That observation leads me to ending my weekly column with this note:

Dear Kyle Petty,

It may interest you to know that about a year and a half ago, the Gibbs stable added a fourth team piloted by a young up-and-coming driver by the name of Carl Edwards.  This young man from Columbia, Missouri, has previously had some success in both the Truck and Xfinity (then Nationwide) series.  Since arriving in the Cup series, he has won a few races.  Well, more than a few, actually.  He has enough wins to put him in the top ten most wins of active drivers.  Over the several years that he has been in Cup series, he has come close to winning the championship on a couple of different occasions.  I predict he will do wonderful things in the future.  Perhaps you could consider putting him on your radar.

Sincerely,
Every Carl Edwards' fan who weeps when he is overlooked

Lessons Learned in the Bluegrass State

We have become used to Dave Rogers unloading a speedy car for Carl, but this weekend the car was exceptionally fast.  He logged the fastest time in three of the four practices.  The only practice session he did not "win" was the second session that was shortened due to weather.

Unfortunately qualifying was rained out.  Until very recently they would set the field based on speeds from the first practice session, but NASCAR realized that policy would create a bad situation for the non-charter teams in position to make the Chase.  So just last weekend they changed the rule to instead set the starting grid based on owners' points.  It was a very practical change that just happened to work against Carl in this case.  His fastest time in the first practice session would have given him the first position at the start of the race (and the best pit stall).  But his fifth place position in the owners' points was not a bad starting spot anyway.  And Kurt Busch, who lined up in third place, had to drop to the back at the start of the race.  So when all was said and done, Carl took the green flag in third place.

Once that green flag dropped, Carl immediately moved up to 2nd.  But then he fell back all the way to 8th.  Thus began the pattern of the day.  He would gain a bit here, lose a few spots there, but never falling out of the top 15.  On some restarts he would fall back, on others he would dive to the bottom and charge ahead.  Carl said that his car drove much differently than it had in practice.  Everybody was learning about the new Kentucky track surface "on the job."  Sometimes tight, sometimes loose, using more brake than usual for an intermediate track.

The learning curve was particularly painful for quite a few drivers.  Both experienced and rookie men found themselves in the wall from tires going down or in the garage from competitors getting loose and taking them out.  It created quite a bit of stress for the teams on the Chase bubble.

Then the cautions settled down and the evening turned into a fuel mileage race.  Carl started saving earlier than many of the other teams.  Several cars came down pit road for a splash of fuel in the last few laps, but the 19 team saved well enough to make it to the finish line.  Unfortunately so did one other car.  Carl finished in 2nd place, but if the race had been one more lap longer, I bet he would have won!

Carl maintained the 3rd spot on the Chase grid, and moved up one position in the drivers' standings, from 5th to 4th.

The worst part of the race took place in the parking lot, where a pickup truck went up in flames.  The fire was so intense that it damaged the cars parked on either side of it.  A grill was perched in the bed of the truck, leading to the suspicion that it was likely the cause of the fire.  However, a post on Twitter indicated that the fire started in the cabin of the truck and emergency responders pulled someone out of there.  Whatever the cause, the result was a bigger mess than what was accumulating in the Cup garage.

Fire in the Parking Lot

Typical Daytona

Rain was an issue in Daytona, wiping out the first and second practice sessions.  The only opportunity to get the Cup cars on the track was the final 45-minute practice session on Friday morning.  Carl Edwards finished in 29th place, concerned with a vibration that might have been related to the engine.

But it did not seem to be an issue once qualifying got underway.  The Gibbs cars showed good speed; Carl finished the first round in 4th place, then ended the second and final round in 2nd place.  Greg Biffle just edged him out from a second consecutive pole, putting the former teammates side by side on the front row for the start of the race.

Carl started on the inside and took the lead for the first 8 laps of the race.  Again he expressed some concern with a vibration, but it did not end up being an issue in the race.  After restarting 5th following the competition caution, he fell back to 27th where he regrouped with teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch.  After the Gibbs success staying together as a group back in February at Daytona, the other teams seemed to have learned that it would be wise on their part to disrupt the Toyota line up.

About 45 laps later, following green-flag pit stops, they once again found themselves up near the front of the race.  The timing was auspicious as The Big One hit just past the halfway mark of the race.  Carl whizzed past Jamie MacMurray as the wreck got underway, with approximately half of the field affected to one degree or another.

Things were looking promising, as Carl restarted in 6th place, directly in line behind his teammates Kyle Busch (in 4th) and Denny Hamlin (in 2nd).  But he got bitten by a plate-racing wreck when Tony Stewart got into him with only 12 laps remaining in the race.  Dave Rogers and crew got him back out on the track, but about a half a dozen laps later another wreck did him in.  That time he got turned into the wall, and his day was over.  He finished in 25th place, dropping one spot on the Chase grid (2nd to 3rd) and 2 spots in the drivers' standings (3rd to 5th).  It was your typical Daytona plate-racing wreckfest.  Thankfully nobody was injured, but a lot of cars were junk.

P.S. Not only did Roush Fenway Racing claim the pole, they also put all three of their cars in the top ten (Bayne in 3rd, Stenhouse in 5th, and Biffle in 8th).  They seem to be making some progress, at least in their superspeedway program.