Motorsports

Two wins and a prayer

Carl Edwards charges back from a late pit stop for a second straight win, thrusting him back into the Chase hunt.

By BRANT JAMES
Published November 7, 2005

FORT WORTH, Texas - Don't bother trying to tell Carl Edwards there isn't enough time left. Not in a race, not in the Chase for the Championship.

The 26-year-old with the happy-just-to-be-here grin and reservoir of talent has debunked that theory. Three of his four Nextel Cup wins have come with last-ditch efforts, just like the one he pulled on Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin in Turn 3 with two laps left Sunday night in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

And after winning his second race in a row, the 77-point gap between Edwards and leader Tony Stewart appears strangely small, even with just two races left.

"Seventy-seven points," said Edwards, whose lone "easy" win came Oct. 30 at Atlanta. "We're not changing a thing. If we're going to win this championship, we're going to do it by trying to have fun. And if we don't win it, at least we had fun."

Martin was second by .584 seconds, followed by teammate Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears and Jimmie Johnson, who beat Stewart by one position. In doing so, the second-place driver in the Cup standings shaved five points off his deficit and trails Stewart by 38 entering Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway. Edwards improved one spot to third in the standings but admitted it will take something extraordinary to catch Stewart, who produced his 18th top 10 in the last 20 races.

Team owner Jack Roush concurred, saying: "We don't have a realistic prospect of beating (Stewart) or (Johnson) with any of our cars, Carl's included, unless somebody else has trouble."

Edwards, in his first full Cup season, was strong at the start and borderline dominant when the sun set on the track's first night Cup race, leading 86 of the last 135 laps. An apparent mundane run to the checkered flag and one-second lead evaporated, however, when debris prompted the final caution on Lap 320 of 334.

Edwards crew chief Bob Osborne elected to surrender the lead and pit for two right side tires, as did Stewart and Johnson, but Martin, running second, Kenseth (third) and Mears (fourth) stayed out to assume the top three spots.

Edwards told Osborne he could take back the positions lost if he restarted sixth or better, but both were less sure than their radio chatter suggested.

"Before the stop I thought it was definitely the way to go," the first-year crew chief said. "After, I was questioning it. I definitely thought (Martin) would pit and that would push everyone else's hand."

"If we put on four tires (Martin) probably would have beat us," Edwards said. "If we stayed out, he probably would have beat us."

After taking right side tires, Edwards restarted sixth and Martin opened a half-second lead as the rest of the top five plodded through lapped traffic. Edwards passed Kenseth on Lap 329 and began hauling in Martin in the corners of the 1.5-mile trioval. Edwards made the final pass high on the backstretch on Lap 333 and was untouchable for the final 3 miles.

"The best car won," Martin said. "Carl was spectacular."

While Roush drivers finished in the top three and had a new title contender possibly emerge from its five-car stable, another likely contender saw his hopes end because of a loose wheel.

Greg Biffle, winner of the spring race, started third in points, 75 back, but left pit road under the first round of stops with a nonsecured left rear wheel. He fell to 43rd, a lap down, by pitting under green to fix it on Lap 49, making the rest of the day miserable.

Biffle spun out twice and sustained sheet metal damage in a third incident after bumping Scott Wimmer. He finished 20th to fall 122 points behind.

After the race, Edwards found himself almost defending his right to be overjoyed. Yes, he said, he wants to win, not just joyride. But five years removed from handing out business cards trying to land any kind of racing job, he said he had perspective.

"Winning this championship is a lot closer to a realistic goal than just the fact that I'm here," he said.

"This is not the biggest challenge of my life by any means, and we're just going to go out and treat it that way. We're going to try and win these races. We probably won't beat Tony Stewart. Probability would say it probably won't happen. The guy knows how to win championships and he's an unbelievable race car driver and they've got a great team, but that's not going to stop us from giving 100 percent. And it would be just so much fun to do, I just couldn't describe it."

[Last modified November 7, 2005, 01:10:19]