Carl Edwards dusted off his long-dormant backflip skills Sunday, winning the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Edwards pulled away from
a determined pack of pursuers on a green-white-checkered flag finish to claim
his first Sprint Cup Series win of the 2013 season and snap a 70-race winless streak dating back to Las
Vegas Motor Speedway in 2011. After losing the championship to Tony
Stewart on a tiebreaker that season, Edwards foundered in 2012, missing the cut
for the championship Chase and finishing a dismal 15th in points.
This
season began badly as well, with Edwards crashing four times during a traumatic Speedweeks 2013 at
Daytona. But his Subway-sponsored Ford dominated at PIR, pulling away after the
race’s final caution for Ken Schrader’s crash with just three laps remaining. Jimmie Johnson won a fender-banging duel with Denny Hamlin by inches to claim the runner-up spot, after Hamlin went
from fourth to second with a testosterone-rich, three-wide pass on the final
lap. Hamlin finished third, followed by Brad
Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt
Jr. Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton completed the Top-10.
“I don’t even know where to
start,” said Edwards afterward. “I have a lot of people to thank; first and
foremost Jack Roush and of these guys at Roush Fenway. (Crew chief) Jimmy Fennig
is the man (and) this pit crew is unreal, They won this race for us. This is
huge.
“I told (one of my
guys) I was about to start getting mad,'" he said. "I try to stay
positive, but we really, really like winning. I can’t say enough about everybody
believing in me. I’m telling you, we are back. This is going to be big.
"This is
just awesome, one of the coolest wins of my life."
There were 12 lead changes among nine different drivers and eight
caution flags for a total of 43 laps. Johnson now leads the championship
standings by eight points over Earnhardt, heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway
this weekend.
So let me get this straight: the guy who started at the back of the field and finished 3rd in the race....claims it's too hard to pass in the Gen 6 car?
ReplyDeletehe claims it all happened in he pits:
Delete“Yeah, I mean, I hate to be Denny downer, but I just didn't pass that many cars today,” said Hamlin. “That's the realistic fact of it. You look and we started 40 something, we finished third and you think that we just motored our way through the pack, and that's just not the case of what happened.
“I'm ecstatic about our finish, don't get me wrong, because we did not have a third place car today. But my pit crew just kept putting me in a position to race those guys, and then I capitalized when one or two guys in front of me made some mistakes here and there, I'd get one more spot, two more spots, next thing you know I've got a shot to possibly get a win at the end. That's what you've got to do when you don't have the best car.”
Just what the Dr. Ordered! The boost of confidence will help him get back to the chase!
ReplyDelete