Total team effort required for Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards to win Coca-Cola 600

By SceneDaily Staff

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

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Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards had a decent run in last Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but he's hoping for a better result in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at the 1.5-mile track.

Edwards finished fifth in last weekend's non-points-paying exhibition race despite having a car that didn't handle to his liking for much of the 100-lap event.

Of course, Sunday's 600-mile, 400-lap race is a different animal altogether as it's the longest event on the Cup schedule. Struggling in the 600 would make for a much longer night than struggling in the all-star race, which many teams use almost like a test session for the following weekend's event.

"The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race of the year, and it's one of the most fun races because there is so much to it," said Edwards, who has no wins but three top-fives and six top-10s in eight starts at LMS. "It takes a great strategy, endurance, the driver, the car and especially the crew, because of the number of pit stops.

"It takes the entire team. It’s one that I'm looking forward to, especially after a strong finish in the all-star race."

Edwards was fairly pleased with how his car ran in the all-star race, where he spent most of the night in the top 10 but never seriously challenged for the win.

“My Aflac Fusion was not real good for the first half of the all-star race," the driver of the No. 99 Ford said. "We found some spring rubbers that fell out during the last stop, so they stuck those back in, and the thing was pretty fast and made it back up to fifth place. We just needed some more laps on Saturday night.

"That definitely won’t be an issue in the 600. There will be plenty of laps. I learned lots of things in the all-star race and think we’ve got something to build on for the 600."

Edwards could use a good night in NASCAR's longest race. He’s 12th in the series standings and in danger of slipping out of position to make NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup with a bad outing.

Edwards comes into the Coca-Cola 600 having finished no better than 24th in the last three points events and is just seven points ahead of 13th-place Clint Bowyer.

“I am looking forward to returning to Lowe’s this weekend for the 600," crew chief Bob Osborne said. "Our Aflac team had a very fast race car there in October. Unfortunately we had ignition trouble and were not able to obtain the results we were hoping for. I feel like we learned a lot last weekend in the all-star race.

"It was a great opportunity to have a test session under conditions that we will be under at the conclusion of the 600. We didn’t have the finish we hoped for on Saturday night, but we hope that we can make up for that this weekend.”