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.