Carl Edwards generally pleased with Nationwide Series season, despite points deficit
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards is second in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings heading into Saturday's race at Texas Motor Speedway. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – All Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards says he needs to catch up to Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Nationwide Series is a little more power.
Edwards is 215 points behind Busch with three Nationwide races remaining this season. He’s won four times and has 21 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes – statistics that equal or better his numbers from his championship season of 2007.
“The Nationwide season I feel like we’ve been as good as we can be,” Edwards said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Saturday’s O’Reilly Challenge. “I made a mistake at Michigan that cost us 80 or 100 points, but other than that, we’ve won when we could win and we’ve run second when we could run second.
“I feel like we just have to have more horsepower there. Literally, we need more horsepower and that’s what we’re fighting right now, but once we get that, I think we’re gonna be really good. Hopefully, the things we’re doing here with the crew chief changes, hopefully that stuff helps for next year, and then the new engine stuff that they’re working on, I hope that pays off, too.”
Edwards will have Mike Kelley as crew chief for the No. 60 Ford team for the rest of the season. Roush Fenway announced last week it was swapping Kelley with Dan Stillman, and Texas is the first race after the switch.
Stillman, Edwards’ crew chief for the first 32 races of the season, moves to Roush Fenway’s No. 6 team, which has David Ragan driving this weekend.
“We all agreed that the crew chief change could be good,” Edwards said. “Right now, the first week out, David Ragan is screaming fast, I’m fast, and it’s working. Dan Stillman was over in our hauler talking to us, and it’s pretty cool to have a team like that where you can move people around and see how it goes.
“But it’s a three-race trial, really. Our … team, we need a little boost and maybe this will be a way to get it.”
