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[/media-credit]Carl Edwards was plenty thankful that Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway was the longest race of the year.
Edwards and his No. 99 Fastenal team had to use that time to battle back from an early pit road miscue. In what could have been one hot, long and frustrating night, Edwards and company stayed calm, cool and collected to come back and finish ninth. It wasn’t lost on Edwards afterwards just how far he had come.
“We passed a lot of cars,” he said. “I don’t know how many cars we passed, but we passed a bunch of them. I thought Greg [Biffle, teammate] was gonna get the win for Fastenal, that would have been really neat, but we struggled. We had that loose wheel. I think Matt [Kenseth, teammate] had a loose as well, so we’ll have to figure out what was going on there.
“And then at the end I got in a line of cars and everybody’s cars were pretty fast so it was hard to make up any ground. I thought we had a shot at winning early in the race because we were really fast. We had a lot of troops here and a lot of folks being honored and hopefully we put on a good show for them.”
If anything Edwards put on a show for his team and fans. After pitting on lap 149 for a loose wheel he fell one lap down and ran 33rd. With caution flags few and far between, Edwards was unable to find himself in the lucky dog position until right before halfway.
While he would never make it to the lead, Edwards found himself back in contention with 100 laps to go. But as he watched Biffle lead the most laps, Edwards fought to find the right balance for his car. Yet, he continued to march through the field and into the top-10.
“Truly, I don’t think anymore passed more cars,” said Edwards about his progress under green flag conditions. “We went from 28th to somewhere around 12th and then went all the way back to 32nd or 33rd, and then got all the way back up to ninth. People say we can’t pass, we can pass but we needed 700 miles or 800 miles.”
But the race’s 600 miles were just enough. Kasey Kahne earned his first win of the season, something Edwards said was hard earned. He on the other hand is still searching for his first win since Las Vegas in March of 2011.
Sunday night was a good run for the team, who are trying to not let the disappointment of last year’s Chase loss hang over their heads. Some call it the second place curse, and when comparing how Edwards ran in 2011 to how he’s currently running, there might be something to it.
He’s not as dominant as he once was. But he’s not as bad as he could be. There’s just still room for improvement. All three Roush-Fenway cars finished in the top 10 on Sunday and Edwards saw how fast his teammates were and how fast he should be. It makes his finish “hard to swallow.”
Even more so since Biffle and Kenseth have already won races this season and sit first and second in points. According to Edwards they need to figure out how to make his car go that fast.
Edwards remains 10th in points after picking up his eighth top-10 finish of the season. Edwards will take it but he wants more. The strength of his team was tested during the year’s longest race, and they passed with flying colors.
Now it’s a matter of closing the deal and there will be plenty of opportunities ahead. Edwards has won at each of the next three tracks on the schedule.
“I was pleased with one or two runs in the middle of that race,” Edwards said when asked if he was happy. “I thought, ‘OK, this is it. We’re back to top form here,’ and then for some reason at the end the balance wasn’t as good, so I think we have some things to work on.
“But our whole Roush Fenway team showed a lot of strength. I think the Fords taking the front row in qualifying was great. Greg led the most laps, it appeared to me. Every time I looked at the scoreboard I was jealous of him, but I hope we can go to Dover and get that win.
“There couldn’t be a better track coming up than Dover.”
