Every series has it’s top dog, top team – someone that everyone wants to beat. When it comes to NASCAR, there’s only one simple answer in the view of many – Jimmie Johnson. Johnson won five straight championships, before losing the last two to Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski. With that, he is the championship favourite to many and the one that many predict will win the championship this year.
In speaking during the test at Texas Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards says there’s something special about the No. 48 team.
“They’re able to turn it up when they need to,” he commented.”
Edwards says while everybody would say the battle of the Chase pasts would be him versus Stewart when they tied, the real battle in Edwards’ mind is Johnson versus the field.
“Those guys have a way of making things happen when they need to,” he added. “Brad proved last year that they can be beaten. They can make mistakes and be forced into errors, but man, they do a really good job and makes you just want to hate Jimmie and Chad. But they’re nice guys and really good competitors.”
Back in 2005 when Edwards won his first Sprint Cup Series race, he won it by beating Johnson to the line by inches.
“The first guy to victory lane dumping Gatorade on my head was Jimmie Johnson,” Edwards recalled. “I thought that was just how everybody is in the sport. But they’re not. He’s a unique competitor, a guy that likes to race and that’s why it’ll mean a lot more to beat him.”
The secret that the No. 48 team has is unknown but Edwards says it’s due to them working hard and striving on competition.
“Those are always the guys that you got to worry about – the guys that keep their heads down and work and love what they do,” Edwards said. “Those are the guys that do it the best.”
After leading the points after the first 26 races, it looked like Edwards would be one of the serious title contenders come Chase time this year and be up there with Johnson and Matt Kenseth. However, six races into the Chase, Edwards currently sits 10th in points.
“Right now, I feel a little bit like we’re behind and I don’t know what it is,” he commented. “I don’t think it’s a function of the car, but our rather a function of our set-ups. But we’re slowly gaining ground.”
Edwards feels one of the spots that Roush-Fenway Racing is lacking is on the mile and a halves, which is one of the reasons that he was glad to test at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend.
“This is a great opportunity to learn some things that not only apply to this track but Homestead,” he said. “We tried last week….well, I didn’t come. My guys did and tried to get the test in. now we have perfect weather and we have a whole other day to test so hopefully it’s fruitful and hopefully it’ll translate to a win. I like winning here; its fun to win here.”
With being out of the Championship hunt, Edwards says his team has two simple goals for the rest of the year – win as many race as possible and prepare for next year.
“It starts over again very quickly and every bonus point that you can get through wins next season can help you towards winning the championship,” he said. “For us, we’re trying to win every race that we can because we’re not putting this season behind us yet.”
One of the things that is helping Edwards get things back on track is his experienced crew chief – Jimmy Fennig.
“We’ve not had problems between us,” Edwards said. “It’s been extremely positive. He’s an expert on every facet of our sport. He not only knows every bit of the set-up, but also strategy, how to work with people and get them motivated, get the most out of me. The only thing I wish was he was 15 years younger so we could do this a lot longer. I don’t know how much longer hell do this, but I’ll drag him along as long as he’ll have me.”
