Carl Edwards Make Statement with Daytona 500 Pole
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[/media-credit]Since the last lap of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season, the question for Carl Edwards has been what was it like to finish second?
Now with Daytona 500 qualifying done, Edwards doesn’t have that to answer that question as he won the Coors Light Pole for the biggest race of the season. Instead of talking about last season, the talk will be centered around that pole.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Edwards said after winning the pole. “I just cannot thank Jack Roush enough for all the work that he’s put in. Doug Yates, I feel like he should be sitting up here with us. Those guys have done an unbelievable job of working through the transition to the EFI. It’s just amazing. To know for the next week Bob and all of us are going to be working on the fastest racecar here at Daytona and preparing it for the biggest race of the season is a lot of fun. It’s great.”
So does this pole actually mean anything?
Well, for starters, he will get to lead the field to the green flag to start the season in the biggest race. That’s always good for team confidence.
He also gets to savor the moment for an entire week, unlike any other pole throughout the season.
He has locked himself into next year’s Bud Shootout already as it returns back to its original format.
He doesn’t have to worry in the Gatorade Duels as he can as hard as he wants and as long as he avoids trouble, he’s locked in. Edwards says that he’ll still go out and mix it up because, “If I were to not race and not understand the dynamics that are going to happen during the daytime here at this racetrack with this package, I’d be giving them something. I have to go out there as a driver and mix it up, race, see how our car handles.
Beyond that, to win the Daytona 500 pole, it takes a lot of prep from the team with regards to working on the car, testing the car in the wind tunnel and perfecting the engine package during the two-month off-season.
As team owner Jack Roush said, “It obviously starts in the shop. Robbie Reiser, he’s under the weather today as well. But he’s worked really hard all winter. Great manufacturing program for us. Chip (Bolin) is behind the scenes leading the engineering group with the simulations, with the predictive things, the wind tunnel, kinematics and suspension. I tease him as he’s writing up new stuff all the time. There’s a lot to this. There’s a lot more than driving a car fast and having a fast engine. You have to coordinate every piece so it’s ready to do its job when it’s time.”
Edwards adds, “After seeing how hard everybody works all winter, how much pride the guys take in how these cars qualify, it does mean something to me. It’s a sign of the strength of your team. It’s not that we just have one car up there. To have two cars, to have that whole front row, I mean, that says a lot about Roush Fenway Racing, about Ford.”
By winning the pole, it sets out a statement in some respect that this team is ready to come back strong in 2012 and contend once again. It already has people thinking of Edwards and the No. 99 Fastenal team for the championship. If he doesn’t do well in the Daytona 500, it may take away from that but with finishing off strong last season and the pole, things look good for 2012 early.
“Feels nice to pick up right where we left off,” Edwards said. “I’ve been telling everybody, it seems like every media question, How great would it have been to have one more point? How did you deal with that this off-season? I think this is nice to come here and show everyone that, hey, it isn’t just talk. Everybody at Roush Fenway went back and worked hard and kept their heads down and dug for, just like Chip said, the best racecars we’ve had in a long time. I thank Jack, Chip, Bob, Robbie Reiser, Doug Yates, everybody who has built these racecars, for not letting the disappointment of not winning that championship, not letting that slow us down, but instead giving us real motivation.”
In looking back at last season, there is no regrets as Edwards said they had a good season despite some of their luck.
“Bob said, No, if we started the Chase again, we’d do the same thing, put our efforts in the same places, I wouldn’t change a thing,” Edwards said. “As we sat there and talked about it, there was Martinsville and Kansas in particular where we were truly running somewhere in the high 20s or low 30s, running laps down. We were able to come back those days and finish, I don’t know what it was, ninth in Martinsville and fifth at Kansas. That doesn’t seem as exciting as a victory. But those days I was more proud of our ability to gather up those points. Those two days themselves were probably 40 points that we didn’t really deserve. So at the end of the championship, when you look at it, we tied a guy who won half of the races. I venture to say if we would have been able to win half of those races, we would have just dominated that thing
“So I guess that’s the long version of me saying we did the very best we could and there weren’t any races where I got out of the car and felt like, Oh, man, I could have got another spot. I got out of the car at seven or eight of those races and thought, Thank you, Lord, for the spots you gave me and we were able to capitalize on it. In the end it ended up a tie.
“Another simple way to put it is we didn’t lose it. We didn’t go out and do anything wrong. We went out, raced hard, did well, and they came in and beat us.”
GERHART TAKES ARCA SERIES SEASON OPENER UNDER THRILLING CONDITIONS
When a primary sponsor, on the hood of a race car, is the same corporation that’s also sponsoring the race it often makes a race driver dig a little deeper, and race a little harder. That’s exactly what racing veteran Bobby Gerhart did on the afternoon of February 18th at the Daytona International Raceway. Despite a weekend filled with obstacles, Gerhart dug deep and raced hard. The reward was the right to park his Lucas Oil Slick Mist Chevrolet in victory lane after winning the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200.
The event was the official season opener of the ARCA Racing Series, presented by Menards. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 also marked the Automobile Racing Club of America’s 60th anniversary season. The event also sent Gerhart to Daytona’s victory lane for the eighth time in 25 starts as well as his third consecutive win at the famous raceway.
However, Gerhart’s day of Daytona jubilation came at series’ rookie driver Brandon McReynolds’ expense. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 was scheduled for 80 laps around Daytona’s massive 2.5 mile oval. The race distance was actually 83 laps due to a late race caution. McReynolds’ Chevrolet, entered by Turner Motorsports, just simply didn’t have enough fuel in the tank to run those extra three laps. McReynolds helplessly watched his first series win at Daytona turn into an 11th place finish after the engine sputtered and silently rolled across the finish line. Making that sinking feeling even deeper was the fact that McReynolds drove a brilliant race and led 64 laps. That’s when Gerhart, with a massive bump draft from series newcomer Drew Charlson, moved from fifth to first to steal the win during the final few feet of the race.
Gerhart’s latest ARCA Series win was not an easy one. The day before the race the Pennsylvania driver scorched the competition in qualifying to claim what would have been his fifth pole position at Daytona. However, during a post qualifying tech inspection, his car failed an engine vacuum leak check and Gerhart was informed that he would be starting the race from the rear of the 43 car field. Despite that disappointment, the team installed their back up power plant and then topped the speed charts during the final practice session held that morning.
Knowing that the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 was bound to become a fuel mileage race, Gerhart surprised everyone by coming down pit road, to pack his tank with gas, on the first lap. He repeated that procedure on lap ten. It would turn out to be a race winning moment. It was later revealed that this move was planned prior to the start of the race.
The pit stops placed Gerhart a lap down but, with 24 of the 43 drivers in the field being ARCA and Daytona rookies, the team knew there was bound to be an early caution flag. They didn’t have to wait very long. A single car spin brought out the first yellow of the race on lap six. Gerhart was awarded the Lucky Dog pass to place him back on the lead lap and began the process of working his way towards the front of the field.
On lap 74, the field was under caution again and McReynolds was observed driving on the track’s apron, wiggling the car from side to side, to save all of the badly needed fuel he would require for the final laps of the race. Unfortunately the field only ran two green flag laps before a single car accident brought out the final yellow. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 was going into overtime.
Following the green-white-checker restart, it appeared that McReynolds, despite running on gas fumes, might have just enough left in the tank to take the win. Unfortunately while coming off of the final turn of the final lap, with the checkered flag in sight, that’s when McReynolds’ engine sputtered. The outstanding, dominant, run by this young driver was now over.
That’s also when the tandem of Gerhart and Charlson jumped to the outside lane which led to their one-two finish. Will Kimmel, Steve Blackburn and Mark Thompson followed them under the checkers to complete the top five rundown.
In victory lane, an ecstatic Bobby Gerhart patted the roof of his car with his hand and screamed “you should never, I mean never ever, rule out this Lucas Oil hot rod.” On this afternoon at Daytona, no truer words were ever spoken.
