Carl Edwards – NSCS PHOENIX ADVANCE
Team: No. 99 Subway Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Bob Osborne
Chassis: RK-726 This is a new car
QUOTES
Carl Edwards on racing at Phoenix:
“I’m looking forward to going back to Phoenix after our win there last November. I’ve always loved racing there and I will be out there laying in front of the excavating equipment trying to get them to leave it after the race. I really like that surface a lot. I don’t think you can mess that track up though, it’s the right size, the sun beats down and it gets slippery. It will be neat after the new pavement as well.”
Crew chief Bob Osborne on racing at Phoenix:
“It would be great to repeat our performance from last fall and get another win at Phoenix. We are taking a brand new car that should be even better than the car we won with there last year. It was a relief to come out of Daytona with a good finish and the points lead. It’s nice when you don’t start the season in a points deficit and spend the first several races trying to fight your way back into the top 10.”
FAST FACTS
* Carl Edwards enters Phoenix leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings by one point over David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte after his second-place finish in the Daytona 500. * DEFENDING WINNER…Edwards won the last race at Phoenix in November after leading 93 laps. He broke a 70-race winless streak for his first Sprint Cup win there. * FOR THE RECORD… In 13 starts at the one-mile track, Edwards has one win, five top-five and nine top-10 finishes. His average start and finish is 11.8. Edwards has completed 94.4 percent (3896 of 4126) of laps in Cup competition attempted at Phoenix. * IN THE LOOP… According to NASCAR’s Loop Statistics compiled over the last 13 races at Phoenix, Edwards has turned 234 of the track’s fastest laps (fourth most), spent 2,777 laps in the top 15, and has led 180 laps. He has a driver rating of 101.7 (second best). * ON THE TRACK… The No. 99 crew will unload RK-726 at Phoenix. This is a brand new car and the first of three races where Subway will be the primary sponsor. * HITTING THE PAVEMENT…Phoenix International Raceway is where Edwards made his first start on a pavement track in 2001. He drove a USAC Silver Crown car. * REWIND, PHOENIX, APRIL 2010… Just when it appeared Edwards would finish ninth, the final caution of the race came with three laps to go. Bob Osborne called for a two-tire stop, but as Edwards came down pit road he decided four tires would be the way to go. As the race resumed for a green-white-checker finish, Edwards was 11th. The top seven cars only took two tires and the rest had pitted for four. Within a lap Edwards gained four spots and was up to seventh place where he finished the race one lap later.
