While being interviewed prior to the weekend, Carl Edwards was heard to say that the 19 crew was frustrated with the 19 team's struggles last weekend in Chicagoland so it does not come as a surprise that they worked hard to bring a fast car to New Hampshire. After posting the fourth fastest time in the first practice, they came out and dominated all three qualifying rounds. Carl zipped through the first round with the fastest time, then easily moved on from round 2 to round 3 with the sixth fastest time. Then, in the third and final qualifying round, he grabbed the pole! Again!
This was Carl's sixth pole of the year, earning a special bonus from Coors Light, the pole sponsor. Any driver who can put together a "six-pack" of poles in a single season is awarded $25,000 to be donated to charity. Carl opted to split his winnings between two worthwhile charities: half went to Speedway Children's Charities, half to the NASCAR Foundation in memory of Betty Jane France.
Carl followed up his speedy qualifying run with a sixth in second practice. In the third and final practice, he posted the fourth fastest time, but the fastest time in ten-lap averages. While all of this sounded promising, Carl himself cautioned that he has had trouble in the past with converting speed in qualifying to speed in the race at Loudon's mile-long racetrack.
He started off the race with a bang, holding the top position for the first 30 laps. Even when he slid back, he only lost a few positions. He held 2nd place for the second 30 laps. He was still in 3rd when he made his first green-flag pit stop on lap 77. Once everyone cycled through their green-flag stops, he was in 5th.
The first caution flag flew on lap 123 for debris. Pulling into his pit stall, he overshot his ideal position by just a little bit. The resulting just-a-wee-bit slower-than-usual pit stop lost him a couple of spots, so he restarted in 7th, then fell back to 8th.
He got that spot back before the next debris caution on lap 165. He pitted for four tires and fuel but no adjustments, although he was advised to adjust the track bar prior to the restart. This time his pit crew snagged him two spots, so he restarted in 5th on lap 171. He lost two spots in five laps, noting that he restarts with adequate grip that quickly goes away. Although he was posting some of the fastest times on the track, he was only able to move up one spot in the next ten laps.
50 laps later, it was time for another green-flag pit stop, this time getting four tires, fuel, and a slight air pressure adjustment to free up his car. Once most of the cars had completed their stops, he found himself in 10th place.
The caution flag came back out on lap 238 for a car in the outside wall. The build-for-speed Comcast Business Camry pitted for right-side tires only and restarted 10th. He spent the next 25 laps between the 9th and 11th positions.
When a car spun out and brought out the caution flag on 263, the team pondered whether or not to pit. A last-minute decision to come to pit road was made just a tiny bit too late, as Carl had the slimmest of a pit road commitment line violation. Cars need to have all four tires inside the commitment box at the entrance of pit road, but his right rear tire ran over that box. As a result, he had to fall to the rear of the field for the restart, putting him back in 20th place on lap 267, with only 33 laps to go.
His frustration with his mistake seemed to fuel his car, because he clawed his way forward. On average, he advanced one position every four laps, until the next caution flag for a car in the outside wall on lap 284. This time he did not pit, restarting in 10th on lap 288, now with only 12 laps to go.
He gained two spots almost immediately and two more spots in the next five laps. When the folks in the flagstand waved the checkered flag, his Toyota crossed the finish line in 6th place. During his after-the-race interview, he said he had a car capable of a top three or four, so a 6th place finish would be respectable under any circumstance. But given the fact that his pit road mistake buried him in the middle of the field, 6th place was magnificent.
Had he finished the race back in that 20th spot, he would have been 3 points below the cut-off line at the end of the day. Instead he finds himself 16 points ahead of the cut-off line, 13 points better than he was before the race got underway. He currently sits in 10th both on the Chase grid and in the drivers' standings, one position back from last weekend. With only two drivers separating him from that dreaded elimination line, it is good that next we go to Dover, one of the tracks where Carl has enjoyed success.
The weekend started out with a bit of rain that washed out qualifying. As a result, the starting grid was set by owners' points, giving Carl Edwards the 5th spot. But that was the last time that bad weather had an impact on the race activities.
The first practice sessions saw fast speeds from the #19 Stanley Camry. Carl finished the three sessions in 2nd, 4th, and 4th. But that speed was not evident during the race. He fell back two spots on the first lap alone. After pitting during a caution on lap 48, he restarted 9th and fell back another two spots within four laps.
He reported a vibration, worried that one of the tires might be loose, but the crew said all lug nuts were tight. Typical of Chicagoland, there were long caution-free sections of the race. During a green-flag pit stop for four tires and fuel on lap 105, they discovered that the right front tire was badly used up. They planned on better tire management going forward.
During a caution for a car that spun out on lap 119, they pitted for a wedge adjustment, four tires, and fuel. They restarted 12th, but continued to fall back. By lap 142, Carl was in 17th place. Over the next 85 laps, he ran between 15th and 16th. As the race continued to wind down, a few cars made green-flag pit stops, allowing Carl to gain a few spots. With only five laps to go, he had climbed up to 11th.
And then came a glimmer of hope with a caution with five laps to go. With the vast majority of the lead lap cars pitting, the 19 team opted to stay out. With two laps to go, they restarted 3rd. It was short-lived excitement, though, as the older tires could not keep up with the rest of the herd. In only two laps, he fell back 12 spots, finishing the race in 15th place. As a result, he currently sits 9th on the Chase grid and in the drivers' standings, 18 points behind the leader and only 5 points away from the cut-off line.
During an interview early in the weekend at Richmond, Carl Edwards indicated that the 19 team was going to try out a few things in advance of the Chase, so my expectations were tempered. That is not to say that I was not hoping for a win, but understanding the team's goals gave me a more balanced perspective.
Practices were confusing to me. He was 8th fastest in the first practice but only 20th fastest in the second and final practice. And while his single lap runs did not top the board, he was 3rd and 1st in ten-lap averages. Looked like they focused on a strong long-run set up instead of qualifying speed.
That seemed to hold true once qualifying got underway. He was 12th in the first round, advancing to round two. But in the second round he was 13th, and with only 12 cars advancing to the third round, he did not move on. He would start the race in 13th.
Once the green flag dropped, he began advancing through the field. By the time the first of many cautions came out, he was in the top ten. But when he pitted during the caution, he got blocked in his pit stall by the car in the stall ahead of him. As a result of the slow pit stop, he restarted back in 18th place.
When the race resumed, he once again began moving forward. By the time the second caution flag flew on lap 84, he was back up to his starting position of 13th. This next pit stop must have made some good adjustments, because when the race resumed he was able to get back into the top ten.
A debris caution halfway through the race gave Dave Rogers a chance to give the Arris Toyota more grip, and that grip allowed Carl to pilot his car closer to the front of the field. Following a catuion on lap 250, Carl restarted in 2nd place. It seemed that there were a couple of cars strong than the 19, but his car did seem to be at least a top five car. And being that close to the front of the field can sometimes result in some serendipitous scenarios, should other teams have mishaps, so it was a good place to run.
But things changed with about a quarter of the race left to go. When a car got into the wall and brought out the caution, a handful of teams elected to stay out instead of pitting, hoping for a change of fortune. So even though Carl came off pit road in 3rd, he restarted 10th.
Unfortunately we brought out the next caution with a spin, but Carl was able to get the car under control without hitting anything. And Dave and his crew were able to change the tires on pit road without losing a lap. The 19 car restarted 19th. For the next 70-ish laps, Carl ranged between 11th and 19th.
The next caution flag ended our night and the hope for a Richmond sweep. In what has become far too commonplace, Tony Stewart retaliated against a perceived error by another driver, in this case Ryan Newman. Unfortunately his actions affected several other cars as well. Eight cars ended up damaged, including the Arris Camry. Our race was over with less than 40 laps to go. Carl ended up in 32nd place.
That finish dropped him 1 spot on the Chase grid from 4th to 5th, and 3 positions in the drivers' standings, from 4th to 7th. But now that the Chase is about to begin, the points get reset. Each driver earns 3 bonus points for each race victory, so Carl enters the Chase with 6 bonus points. That ties him with 4 other drivers for 4th place. But nobody knows better than a Carl Edwards fan that NASCAR has tiebreakers! In this case, the tiebreaker is second-place finishes, if still tied then third-place finishes, and so on. Carl is second best of that bunch, putting him in 5th place going into Chicagoland. Now it is time to put to use all of the strategies that the team has learned during the first 26 races!
Hermine
(the hurricane) made a feeble attempt to derail the Darlington race
weekend. The rain and wind were so severe that NASCAR had to cancel all
track activity on Friday, but the storm blew through and left Saturday
and Sunday available for some racing action.
With
one less day of preparation for racing, NASCAR decided to cancel all
qualifying sessions, to allow the teams to have practice time instead.
As a result, the starting grid was set according to owner's standings,
putting Carl in the 3rd spot. And from the looks of practice, that was a
good thing. His practice speeds put him 22nd in the first session and
7th in the second and final session, so it seemed unlikely that he would
have gotten a better starting position than 3rd.
Unfortunately during the race, 3rd was the closest he got to the front of the race. He did hang on to a top five position for about the first 40 laps or so. But then he steadily fell back, out of the top ten around lap 100, out of the top fifteen about 20 laps later. He would claw his way forward, only to slide back again.
But during a caution on lap 213, Dave Rogers called for big changes. In addition to four fresh tires and fuel, the pit crew also gave him a wedge adjustment and took two packers out of the front on both sides of the car. All that work took a little bit of time, so they restarted in 17th place. But the changes seemed to help, because he gained a spot about every other lap. In less than 40 laps, he was back inside the top ten.
He spent the next 75 laps or so between 8th and 15th, moving up a bit here, falling back a bit there. But while on pit road getting serviced during a caution, he ran into another car, damaging the left front corner of his car. To avoid losing a lap, they went back out on the track and restarted in 13th. But the damage was rubbing on the tire, quickly sending the 19 Arris Toyota Camry back to pit road for repairs, leaving him two laps down.
With less than 30 laps left in the race, he was able to get back one but not both of those laps. He
finished the race in 19th place. That kept him in the 4th spot on the
Chase grid, but he lost one spot in the drivers' standing, dropping from
3rd to 4th.
