Late race incident cost Edwards top-ten finish, points lead still gets an extension

Carl Edwards started the Coca-Cola 600 weekend off once again by appearing to be the car to beat when the opening practice showed him in second place.  And just as he had in the Sprint All Star Challenge, Edwards started the 600-miler off just the same.

Edwards had qualified 3rd on Thursday afternoon, and quickly moved around the 43 of A.J. Allmindinger for 2nd place in the event.  Edwards had then set his sights on the No. 2 of pole sitter Brad Keselowski andon lap 8 propelled himself by the Dodge.  On lap 13, Edwards had reported to crew chief Bob Osborne a yellow light was blinking down the back straightaway at a certain point but didn’t know what it was.  Edwards also reported to Osborne that the No. 99 Scotts EZ-Seed Ford Fusion was getting a little tight through the race run. 

Carl Edwards passes Brad Keselowski for the race lead during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 29, 2011 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

On lap 46, teams made their first pit stops of the afternoon under green.  The team did a minor adjustment on the car, and took four tires and fuel in 14 seconds, but lost the lead to the 43 team on pit road.  However, Edwards wasted little time running the fellow Ford of Allmindinger down once again.  By Lap 54, Edwards was still the fastest car on the track and passed the Allmindinger for the race lead.  By lap 60, Edwards had been out front for 46 of the first 60 laps on the track. 

 On lap 76, a caution flag had fell for debris after Edwards had extended out to over a 5 second lead on the 43 car.  On the second stop of the event, Edwards takes four tires, leaves in 13.8 seconds and drops back to 2nd, but slips back to fourth on the restart.  Edwards remained up there until the next caution flag flew for the 47 car spinning out on the track on lap 100. 

Edwards had complained again the car was too tight and Osborne made another small adjustment on the car.  The team lost time in the pits, but Edwards still looked strong on the track.   The race restarted on lap 103, he quickly worked his way back into the top-5, as many cars took only two tires to gain track position.  Edwards was up into fourth place on lap 114, and trailed teammate Matt Kenseth by 2.8 seconds on the track.  He then passed David Ragan on lap 117 for third place and remained around the same differential to Kenseth. 

As the run progressed, Edwards was gaining on the 11 of Denny Hamlin and on lap 138 made the pass for the position as he was now trailing Kenseth by over 6 seconds on the track.  Green flag stops had cycled through on lap 148 for Edwards and he was now over seven seconds behind his teammate.    However, by lap 165, Edwards had cut into the 17 cars lead by more than two seconds. 

Edwards had remained amongst the top-5 for much of the race but when teams decided to play strategy in the race, things began to change for the 99 car.  He had battled his way back into 8th place when the final caution flag came on on lap on lap 397.  However, instead of coming in for fuel, the team decided to stay out on the track for the position.  When the race restarted, Kasey Kahne caused a huge mess that should have brought out the caution flag on the track but did not.   Edwards was involved in the mess and it caused him to slip back from 7th to 16th in the Coca-Cola 600 running order. 

Even with the 16th place finish, Edwards left Charlotte extending his points lead.  He now holds a commanding 36 point advantage over Kevin Harvick going into the upcoming event at Kansas Speedway, his home track.

“We were great, but it was just a track position game,” Edwards said.  “By chance, everything that we did ended up being bad for track position.  We were loose at the wrong times and I made some moves out there that put us in some spots that set us back, but that’s racing.  I thought there at the end with all the fuel I saved that we were going to be in a really good spot, but somebody ran out of fuel on the restart and everybody just clobbered everyone.  I think if we would have had a chance to race for it, we would have been looking pretty good.

“This is a neat race.  I really like running it.  At the end of the day, the guys we’re racing in the points had worse luck than we did and that’s racing.”