Roush Fenway Leads 221 laps, but comes up just short at Charlotte
Edwards expands Sprint Cup points lead to 36
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 30, 2011) – Roush Fenway Racing came into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 looking for its third consecutive NASCAR weekend sweep and despite dominating the event, fell just short of the accomplishment. In a wild ending, David Ragan posted a career-high second-place finish, needing just one spot to bring home Roush Fenway’s fifth 600 trophy.
All four drivers combined to lead a total of 221 of 400 laps, with all four having a legitimate shot at the win.
Matt Kenseth had the dominate car in the race, leading five times for a race-high 103 laps. He would, however come up short on fuel mileage and had to settle for a 14th-place finish. Carl Edwards led 61 laps early, but was unable to find the handling after the sun went down and finished 16th.
Greg Biffle overcame early cooling issues to – not only battle back onto the lead lap – but dominate the latter stages of the race, leading 50 laps. Biffle had the race win in site, holding the lead with just three to go, before the final caution forced him to come in for fuel prior to the ‘overtime’ finish.
With the finish Edwards increased his Sprint Cup points lead to 36. Matt Kenseth is seventh, Greg Biffle moved up one spot to 11th and David Ragan increased three spots to 18th.
In addition, Roush Fenway’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driving the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford for Trevor Bayne, finished 11th in his Sprint Cup debut.
The Sprint Cup Series returns to action next weekend at Kansas Speedway. Roush Fenway has won three times in Sprint Cup action at Kansas, including last fall when the organization place three cars in the top 10 at the 1.5-mile track.
