Edwards wins his third race of the year at Texas
Quote selected text Published April 6th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Carl Edwards ran away with Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway for his series-best third win of the season, holding off Jimmie Johnson on a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.
Edwards had the field covered for most of the race, at one point building a lead of more than seven seconds over Johnson. But two late cautions - one for debris with 39 laps to go, and another for oil on the track with five to go, gave Johnson a shot to steal the win.
But Edwards didn’t give him a chance on either restart, handily pulling away both times to deny the two-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion his first win of the season.
It was Edwards’ first victory since his team was accused of cheating following his win last month in Las Vegas. The cover was missing from his oil tank after the victory, and NASCAR hammered the team with penalties.
Edwards was stripped of 100 points - knocking him out of the points lead - and the 10 bonus points he earned from that victory. Crew chief Bob Osborne was suspended for six races and fined $100,000.
On the day the penalties were announced, Edwards vowed to continue his march toward his first Cup championship. He delivered with his dominating run Sunday, then dedicated the victory to Osborne as he crossed the finish line.
“This is for Bob Osborne sitting at home,” he radioed his crew. “Good job guys.”
More at Kentucky.com
RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER, MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 2 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 195/10 339 Running
2 5 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 175/5 339 Running
3 3 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 170/5 339 Running
4 4 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Samsung HDTV / ALLTEL 160/0 339 Running
5 14 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 155/0 339 Running
6 35 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Prilosec OTC 150/0 339 Running
7 24 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 146/0 339 Running
8 31 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 142/0 339 Running
9 8 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 143/5 339 Running
10 25 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 134/0 339 Running
11 21 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 130/0 338 Running
12 1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / AMP Energy 132/5 338 Running
13 7 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 124/0 338 Running
14 32 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal Cask No. 16 121/0 338 Running
15 41 38 David Gilliland Ford Yates Racing 118/0 338 Running
16 36 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 115/0 338 Running
17 19 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Quaker State / Menards 112/0 338 Running
18 38 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Yates Racing 109/0 338 Running
19 11 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 106/0 337 Running
20 30 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios Racing / Sam’s Club 103/0 337 Running
21 29 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 100/0 337 Running
22 22 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Cheez-It / CARQUEST 97/0 337 Running
23 23 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 94/0 337 Running
24 42 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 91/0 337 Running
25 10 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 88/0 336 Running
26 26 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy / Garmin 85/0 336 Running
27 13 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 82/0 336 Running
28 27 10 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Valvoline 79/0 335 Running
29 9 84 Mike Skinner Toyota Red Bull 76/0 334 Running
30 15 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Jim Beam 73/0 334 Running
31 20 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 70/0 333 Running
32 17 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 67/0 333 Running
33 40 00 Michael McDowell * Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 64/0 332 Running
34 28 21 Bill Elliott Ford Motorcraft 61/0 332 Running
35 34 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 58/0 331 Running
36 12 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 60/5 330 Off Track
37 43 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row/ DenverMattress.com 52/0 330 Running
38 39 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Haas Automation 49/0 329 Running
39 16 16 Greg Biffle Ford DISH Network / DishDVRs 46/0 312 Running
40 37 34 John Andretti Chevrolet Front Row Motorsports 43/0 263 Off Track
41 6 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 40/0 253 Out of Race
42 33 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 37/0 173 Out of Race
43 18 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 34/0 124 Out of Race
Bookmark to:
- Top 12 - Chase for the Cup heading into Texas
- Top 10 drivers - and beyond going into Texas
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr scores pole at Texas
- Carl Edwards comments on his Busch title
- Edwards testing at Iowa to prepare for Richmond
How about those JGR Camrys all in the top 10? Can’t believe Tony’s ride held together… Thought he came on the radio with a dozen to go and said it was blowing up on him, but I guess she held together just long enough!
FORD & ROUSH on top today—OIl tank cover in place—–I’m sure
Good run for Bobby too, and Mark Martin and Brian Vickers.
Roush is on top of the COT. This race was very boring.
Lot of cars with crappy handling cars… CONGRATS TO EDWARDS! Had him on a pool so I don’t really mind that he won
Boring race…not much competition.
I couldnt believe how terrible Jeff Gordon was all day…how can such a highly funded team be so far off the pace?
Andrew wrote:
It’s Texas what did you expect…?
YAY JGR !!! ALL IN TOP 10
I think alot of races have been boring this year. More
than usual. I think the COT along with the bad handling
that the drivers seem to complain about every week, is
taking away their comfortabilty to race the cars with
eachother. Everyone kind of seems to be battling themselves
throughout the race to not wreck. And it’s creating these
long green flag runs of nothing but drivers fighting
the steering wheel.
I wonder how many bolts Roush put on the Oil Tank cover this week ?? Maybe Texas is not the kind of track that having it FALL OFF would help uncle Carl so much… Just wondering what else might have had the hand of Roush touch, This week???
Yeah wonder what else they tinkered with? I guess it probably wasn’t something that was significant enough to be found though…hmmm