Carl Edwards dominates at Phoenix

What would have turned into a two-year losing streak for Carl Edwards ended on Sunday when he brought home the victory at the Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Photo courtesy of Genna Short

While Edwards didn’t dominate the race, he did dominate the weekend. He started by winning the pole and setting a new track record of 136.389 miles an hour, snatching the spot from Kurt Busch, who was the first to break the six-year record.

A win on Saturday afternoon’s Wypall 200 added another award to Carl's growing award collection.

Edwards completed the weekend by taking the victory on Sunday afternoon.

The 99 car led the field to the green and had no problem holding his lead for the first six laps. Kurt Busch snatched the lead away from him by lap seven and the two chased each other back and forth until Denny Hamlin took the lead under green on lap 66.

The 11 car dominated the race, losing the lead during a caution but quickly gaining it back after the lap 105 restart. Hamlin had, at one point, opened up a 5.4 second lead over Jimmie Johnson and clinched the most laps led by lap 217, earning five crucial bonus points.

The final lead change for the win took place on lap 266. Hamlin was low on fuel and eventually had to pit for fuel on lap 298, just 14 laps short of the finish. He muscled his way from 19th back up to a respectable 13th place finish by the end of the race.

In the end, Denny Hamlin’s race dominance came to nothing but a top 15 finish, leaving him just 15 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson.

Meanwhile, Carl Edwards had his first taste of victory in the Sprint Cup series, breaking a winless streak which fell just one race short of two full seasons.

“It was a great day for us. The race started, I felt like we had the best car. Then here comes Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson. Really I think their cars were better in the middle part of the race. Bob (Osborne) made really good adjustments. The track came to us a little bit. “

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Edwards Gets Probation for Atlanta Incident

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 9, 2010) – NASCAR has placed Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, on probation for the next three series events for a rule violation he committed during the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7. Edwards’ probation will run until April 14 of this year.

Edwards was found to have violated Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing – aggressive driving) of the 2010 NASCAR rule book.


We want to know what you think of this. Is “probation” enough or should Edwards be parked for an extended period of time? Let us know in the comments below.


Here's what NASCAR President Mike Helton had to say about the incident Tuesday during a press conference.

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Kobalt Tools 500 Race Recap: Racing, Retaliation, and Repeat Winner

HAMPTON, Ga. (March 7, 2010) — Kurt Busch won two races Sunday: the Kobalt Tools 500 and the Carl Edwards 25.

In a race that went 16 laps—nearly 25 miles—past its scheduled distance, after Edwards retaliated against Brad Keselowski for an incident earlier in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch took advantage of a strong restart to grab the lead during the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag restart and crossed the finish line .482 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth.



Juan Pablo Montoya, who was closing in on Busch near the end of the regulation 325 laps, finished third but lost his chance to battle for the victory when Edwards hit Keselowski’s No. 12 Dodge on the frontstretch and sent it flying on Lap 323.

Keselowski’s car landed on its roof in the tri-oval, righted itself and slid into the Turn 1 wall. After extensive clean-up, NASCAR restarted the race on Lap 332—without Edwards, who was black-flagged on Lap 326—with Busch assuming the lead from Clint Bowyer, who had taken the point on a two-tire pit stop under caution on Lap 324.



Before Busch could take the white flag, however, a seven-car pileup in Turn 3 caused the 11th caution of the race and set up the second try at the green-white-checkered.

Edwards’ aggression toward Keselowski was payback for a Lap 40 wreck in Turn 2, where Edwards felt Keselowski didn’t give him enough room.

“Brad knows the deal between him and I,” said Edwards, who returned to the track on Lap 191 after losing 150 laps in the garage. “The scary part was that his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected.



“At the end of the day, we come out to race, and people got to have respect for one another. I have a lot of respect for people’s safety, and I wish that wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK. We’ll just go on and race some more, and maybe him and I won’t have any more incidents together—that’d be the best thing.”

The wreck, with Keselowski running sixth at the time, was eerily similar to a collision involving the two drivers last April at Talladega, where Keselowski held his line at the bottom of the track and won the race after Edwards No. 99 Ford flew into the catch fence, injuring eight spectators.



“He cut down on me on a restart, and I lifted (off the accelerator), and I couldn’t lift fast enough for him,” Keselowski said of the Lap 40 wreck. “I lifted for him to let him in, but I was there. I don’t know what more you could do.

“I apologized to him, but there’s nothing I could do in that situation, and to come back and just intentionally wreck someone—that’s not cool. It could have killed somebody in the grandstands. I know that it’s a little ironic that it’s got me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally when it happened.



“It’s going to be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone, either in the cars or in the grandstand.”

Busch claimed the 21st victory of his career and his first with crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Penske Racing during the offseason after guiding Busch’s brother, Kyle, to 12 victories in 2008 and 2009 with Joe Gibbs Racing.



“With Steve Addington, all of his new ideas, I never knew how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it,” Busch said. “Even on those restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat.”
Fourth-place finisher Kasey Kahne led the most laps (144), but his car tightened at the end of the race. Paul Menard ran fifth and AJ Allmendinger sixth, giving Richard Petty Motorsports a 4-5-6 finish, the organization’s best result since announcing a switch from Dodge to Ford late last year.



Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed completed the top 10.

Notes: Dale Earnhardt Jr. regained two lost laps during the last two cautions and finished 15th. He’s 13th in the Cup standings, seven points out of 12th, the last Chase-eligible position. … Harvick retained the points lead by 26 over Kenseth and 59 over Biffle.

Final Results: Kobalt Tools 500

1. Kurt  Busch
2. Matt Kenseth
3. Juan Pablo Montoya
4. Kasey Kahne
5. Paul Menard
6. AJ Allmendinger
7. Brian Vickers
8. Greg Biffle
9. Kevin Harvick
10. Scott Speed
11. Marcos Ambrose
12. Jimmie Johnson
13. Tony Stewart
14. Regan Smith
15. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
16. Bill Elliott
17. Ryan Newman
18. Jeff Gordon
19. Elliott Sadler
20. Jeff Burton
21. Denny Hamlin
22. Bobby Labonte
23. Clint Bowyer
24. Mike Bliss
25. Kyle Busch
26. David Gilliland
27. Martin Truex Jr.
28. Sam Hornish Jr.
29. Jamie McMurray
30. Travis Kvapil
31. Kevin Conway
32. Boris Said
33. Mark Martin
34. Max Papis
35. Joey Logano
36. Brad Keselowski
37. David Ragan
38. Joe Nemechek
39. Carl Edwards
40. David Reutimann
41. Dave Blaney
42. Michael McDowell
43. Robby Gordon

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