As the hot summer gets here, Edwards the hottest driver on the circuit

The next couple of months are big in deciding the Chase.  However, looking at the championship standings, Edwards has been putting a distant mark on his competitors in the points standings.  Edwards now holds a marginable 40 point advantage in the standings going into this weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway – where he has been a factor ever since his rookie season.  The stats speak for themself at Pocono with two victories, 5 top-fives and 6 top-tens.  It doesn’t just stop at Pocono either with the hot summer weather and the slick tracks coming up on the schedule.

As the schedule gets into June and July, Edwards will be a factor at almost every venue that the series arrives at this season.  The only two major question marks on the schedule before the Chase are at Sonoma and Loudon, where Edwards has been off and on at in the past.  Daytona is a crap shoot since it is a restrictor plate event and anything can happen there, but the rest are places that Edwards has consistently been a front runner at.

Last year at the end of 2010, there was already people speculating on who was going to be the main contender for the No. 48 Lowes team in Sprint Cup, as they scored their fifth consecutive title in the series.  This year, things are pretty clear on who is their biggest rival on the series schedule this season with Edwards being up front almost every race.  Edwards has already scored 3 second place finishes to go with the one victory that came in Las Vegas and two of them have been behind two first time winners in Sprint Cup – Trevor Bayne at Daytona and Regan Smith in Darlington.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t but just 8 months ago before the last 3 races of the season came to a drift and many fans were wanting a major change to come through on Edwards team.  Fans were wanting crew chief Bob Osborne let go, and a new crew chief put in place.  Edwards did not, however, and wanted to stick with his gut feeling on Bob Osborne.  The two have made a winning pair ever since 2004, and now look like the strongest team to stand up with Johnson and Chad Knaus. 

“Robbie Reiser being the team manager has helped us a lot,” Edwards said. “He has changed the structure at Roush Fenway, and it has been great. I feel like our pit crews have stepped it up, and our whole process from a pile of tubing to a finished race car is better, more streamlined and more attention to detail.

“All of those things – there is not one trick, we don’t just have a good engine or just have a good aero package. We have good race cars, and all of that has come together. Almost all the teams have been to victory lane in one way or another this year.”

Now other drivers are starting to sit and notice things as the months keep moving by.  Tony Stewart made the remark last weekend while racing at Kansas Speedway that competing against the Roush Fenway group was like “taking a knife to a gun fight.”  Edwards simply responded by saying that the new FR9 was not a big advantage, that the team had done its home work and caught up to everyone else this season.  And the fact is they have.  Last season, Roush Fenway was way behind on research and Roush spent the extra money to get things back in place.  Now the team is at the same standards with everyone of its competitors including Hendrick and Gibbs.

Yet it is Edwards that is leading the Ford Charge going into these hot summer months where everything is ever so critical to make it or break. 

“Right now today we are more inclined to take risks and do things,” Edwards said. “How much is a win worth as far as points when we start the Chase? Is it three? I read somewhere it was 10 and was like, ‘Holy moley, we need to be more aggressive.”

 “We have been balancing two things. One is running well enough that we have a big cushion and are in the Chase. We are doing that now and have the points lead. Two, once we feel comfortable with that, which I feel like we are there almost, we want to go out and take not necessarily risks driving but risks with some setups and engines and pit calls and stuff like that. We maybe wouldn’t have done that before.

“We are here to win right now, and it is nice to be able to do that. I have never been in this position at this point in the season.”