Edwards Posts Another Strong Finish at Kansas
It may not be the finish that he wanted, but Carl Edwards will take his fifth place finish at Kansas Speedway as another strong run in his quest for the Nascar Sprint Cup championship. The #99 Aflac Ford Fusion was in seventh place as the green flag dropped. It took him 84 laps to take over the lead, which he held until a caution fell at lap 110. Kyle Busch exited the pits with the lead, with Edwards in second place. Edwards reported his car was too loose on that run, and he was not able to keep up with the leaders, falling back to 8th place. The team continued to adjust on the car, but then fuel strategy became the buzz words of the day with about 100 laps to go. The 99 pitted with 20 laps to go, getting fuel and two tires. Because other teams had pitted earlier, and were gambling to make it to the finish ahead of Edwards, he was left with the waiting game to see when or if any of the cars ahead would run out of gas. The #22 of Kurt Busch did run out at lap 259, leaving his teammate Brad Keselowski with the lead. Keselowski was able to extend his fuel to the finish line, with Dale Earnhardt, Jr coming in second and Denny Hamlin in third place. Jeff Gordon and Edwards rounded out the top 5.
Post race quote: “I really wanted to win and it is really hard to win here,” Edwards said. “Today was a little bit extra difficult because the track was changing a lot. The first third of the race and even the first half our Aflac Ford Fusion was superior. It was great. Bob and I didn’t change the car enough to keep up with the conditions. We had a restart and I went backwards in a hurry and I thought we had to really gather it up. We did that and made it up to fifth. I had a good time though. It is a fun race track and it is my new favorite race track. When it is hot and slick like this you can slide the cars around and run multiple grooves. It is a lot of fun and I like it.”
This fifth place finish was the 7th top five of the year, and the 10th top ten of 13 races. Edwards was able to extend his points lead in the standings to 40 points over Jimmie Johnson. The second place finish for Earnhardt Jr moves him one point behind Johnson in the standings. The series moves on to Pocono next week for the 5-Hour Energy 500 on Sunday, June 12th.
