Using the words of Tony the Tiger, Jimmy Fennig’s pit strategy was “Grrrreat” as it led Carl Edwards and the No. 99 Kellogg’s / Frosted Flakes Ford to victory lane in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
A late caution would fly with 76 laps to go when Martin Truex Jr. had a flat tire that resulted in contact with the wall. Under the caution, Carl Edwards was one of the drivers that stayed out with four others while the rest of the leaders chose to pit.
“I thought when Jimmy said we’re going to stay out, I thought, well, that’s a good idea. And then nobody stayed out around us, and I thought, oh boy, that might not be the greatest thing, and it turned out to be perfect,” Edwards commented. “Our car was just fast or faster than it had been all night after that, so there was no detriment to our performance. It didn’t hurt us in any way staying out. It helped all that track position, so that was good.”
Edwards would inherit the lead and was able to escape away from Aric Almirola and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the restart.
He then stretched the lead and kept the field behind him till the caution flew with two laps to go. The caution was a result of a “light malfunction” as NASCAR said the switch was hit by accident, but would be the end of the race as the skies opened up.
“I can tell you, for Robin and NASCAR to come up here and explain exactly what happened immediately after the race and just put it out there that, hey, it was a mistake and it was inadvertent, I think that says a lot about the state of the leadership of our sport,” Edwards commented. “I’ve been involved in one other incident like that, and I don’t know if — I think I might be the only guy that’s — anyway, I was leading the last time that happened at Charlotte in a truck race and we got passed, and Mike Helton, he wrote a — they put out a press release saying we messed up, we apologize to Carl and his crew, and I think NASCAR, that was 12, 13 years ago, and they still stand by their mistakes, and for them to come up here and say, hey, we messed up, that means a lot.
“As a sport they make a lot of tough calls. We all do a lot of things where there’s a lot of room for mistakes, and so the outcome worked out for me, but even if it hadn’t, I’m glad to be part of something where they just say, hey, we screwed up.”
If the rains hadn’t fallen and the race would’ve went back green, it could’ve changed the outcome – possibly – if Edwards would’ve got past. Edwards said he had a lot of thoughts go through his mind when it came out initially, knowing that it’d be a battle to the end with his teammate Stenhouse Jr.
“I have a feeling if — the way I envision it in my mind knowing Ricky, knowing — probably neither one of us would have made it back to the start-finish line,” Edwards commented. “It could have been that ugly. Aric probably would have been in a really good spot. Ricky was being aggressive out there all night, and I knew what was coming, so that was going to be a battle.”
However, we don’t have to play that ‘what if’ game now.
Caution light deal aside, the win at Bristol marks Edwards’ first win of the season and marks a great finish following Roush-Fenway Racing’s struggles last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After practice, it didn’t seem that this was a possibility due to how bad they were. However, Edwards said his guys worked hard – including staying up to 3 a.m. the night before to work out a set-up.
“Huge day for us, though,” Edwards commented. “Great day for Kellogg’s, for Frosted Flakes, Cheez-It, everybody that was here that supports our team. Huge day for Ford. I mean, people were talking a lot about how Fords are running so great on Friday, and it wasn’t our Fords. It was not our Roush Fenway Fords. We’ve been struggling lately, and for us to come out of here with a win and to run so well with a number of the Fords out of our shop, that was big.”
Most importantly with Edwards’ win, it practically secures Edwards’ spot in the Chase. Or does it? With four winners in the first four races, there is a possibility that there could be more than 16 winners this season – or as Edwards even hinted, maybe 26 different winners in the 26 races.
“It’ll be a heck of a battle just to get in,” Edwards added. “We have 12 more races, and all of a sudden it turns into there are already 16 winners — yeah, 12 more. So I think — but the first step is you have to win. I think we’re proving that right now. You’re going to have to have a win, I believe, to be in the Chase, so now that we’ve checked that box, we need to go get another win, and I think then we will be guaranteed to be in it.”
Though in reality, that is most likely not to happen as NASCAR normally has 12 to 14 different winners a season, so we’ll just say that Edwards is in the Chase as of now.
“I guess I’m part of a group of guys that can go have some fun and focus on the final 10 races to get to this championship,” Edwards commented. “I’ve been a little bit jealous of those guys who have wins this early in the season. I was thinking today, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be able to come to the racetrack like this and have all that pressure off of you, so now we’ll get to go have some fun. I’m really excited about the next 22 races. That’ll be a blast.”
