Edwards Doubles Down In Las Vegas

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CIA Stock Photo Edwards Performs His Ninth Backflip

Carl Edwards earned the right to do a backflip for the second consecutive week when he took the checkered flag in the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. He also won last weeks rain-delayed race at California Speedway. It was the ninth career victory for Edwards, his first win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“For me personally there’s nothing else I can do in my life that gives me that feeling of anticipation and anxiety and excitement and I just enjoy it. That’s it," said Edwards. "That’s what we do this for is for the challenge and, man, I really like it. It’s fun for me. It’s really cool to come off turn four and see all those fans standing up and know you’ve got the best drivers in the world behind you and that’s when it’s on the line with two laps to go – I like it.”

It also was the fifth victory for Roush Fenway Racing at Las Vegas.

“I’m just glad that I have the opportunity to hang around with really fast people," said Jack Roush. "I know Carl will give Bob a lot of credit, but Bob made a good decision today on when he could take two tires and when he had to have four and, of course the changes they made in the car were right on time.

"I asked Bob this morning what he thought about the cooler temperature and what he thought about the wind and he said, ‘We had a little trouble in one of the corners yesterday,’ and he said, ‘the wind is gonna help us with the corner,’ and he said he thought the cooler temperature was gonna work right into the balance he had in the car – front to rear – for traction and as it turned out he was right, but Bob has been right a lot of the time and that’s really helping Carl. They work really well together and I’m just glad to be able to run with them.”

Another plus for Edwards, he now leads the Sprint Cup Points.

It wasn't an easy victory, Edwards was ticketed by NASCAR for a tire violation on lap 111 and was assessed a drive-through penalty. That put him at the end of the longest line. Edwards slowly worked his way back through the field and on lap 195, Edwards passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead.

Then Matt Kenseth took the lead from Edwards during pit stops on lap 216. Earnhardt was in second place and Edwards was running third. It didn't take Edwards long to dispose of Earnhardt and set out for his teammate Kenseth. On lap 238 Edwards got around Kenseth and easily pulled away. Despite several more cautions, Edwards never relinquished the lead.

“I try really hard to stay calm. I’m not the best at it sometimes, said Edwards, speaking of a second tire that rolled out on pit road. "We all know that, but I try really hard. There’s not much you can do to fix that stuff, but I can hear the Jeopardy song just playing and just waiting for Bob to tell me everything is gonna be all right and this time it worked out.”

Earnhardt held on for second place and Greg Biffle was third.

"Trying to race Carl (Edwards) on the one restart, I spun my tires, and the 17, the 24 got around me," Earnhardt said. "That was just my mistake. Then the red flag, we weren't as good on cold tires. So we were sliding around a little bit. Greg got on the outside of me and we pushed up. I seen him lift so we could get off the corner together. That was kind of cool of him, running me clean like that.

"Carl wasn't going to get beat today. It's good to just put one in the bag after last week. I so desperately wanted to finish where I thought the car was capable of finishing, and we did today."

Kevin Harvick and teammate Jeff Burton finished fourth and fifth.

David Ragan placed his Ford in the sixth spot followed by Kasey Kahne, Travis Kvapil, Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin to round out the top ten.

Franchitti scored a 33rd-place finish and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season. Unofficially Franchitti has a one point lead (31-30) over Regan Smith in the Raybestos Rookie standings. In three Sprint Cup races this season, Franchitti is the only Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap. He led once for one lap in the Auto Club 500 (race No. 2).

“We had a very down and up race," said Franchitti. "We really had nothing to work on from Friday and Saturday, didn’t have a decent car. We threw Reed’s (teammate Sorenson) setup on it from the 41 car, just everything on it and it was, for me, way, way too loose. I think Reed was loose as well and so we spent the first, I don’t know, I’d like the say 100 laps just tightening the car up and unfortunately by that point we’d gone two laps down.

"After that there was a portion of the race we were running the same times as the leader. We got the car comfortable, it was good and we were to make progress, pass a bunch of guys. Then we probably at the end there the last stop we had to put some tires on from somewhere else because we’d run out. I guess there were different codes or something. It was horribly loose again. That was our day. Not where we wanted to finish but that midpoint of the race really taught me a lot and I’m really happy with it.”

On a restart with five laps to go, Edwards was leading and Earnhardt was running second. Earnhardt spun his tires and Jeff Gordon dove below Earnhardt and Matt Kenseth split Earnhardt on the high side. They both got past Earnhardt but Gordon and Kenseth made contact. It spun both cars and Kenseth escaped any serious damage but Jeff Gordon hit the inside concrete barrier right at an opening -- that had no SAFER wall. It completely destroyed Gordon's Chevrolet. Gordon was checked and released from the infield medical center. It had just knocked the wind of of Gordon.

“I’m okay but I’m going to be really sore tomorrow," said Gordon. "It was a really, really hard hit. It took me a while to be able to catch my breath and to get out. I looked down and I saw where the transmission was and it was no longer there. That’s probably the hardest I’ve ever hit and you know it was my fault. We were all pushing so hard there. I got a little bit tight underneath Matt and turned it up into him. I was trying to stay out of hitting him after he spun and it just turned me sideways. I couldn’t have hit the wall at a worse angle. It really tore the thing up. I’m really disappointed right now in this speedway for not having a soft wall back there. And even being able to get to that part of the wall shouldn’t happen.

“But I’m more thankful that I’ve got an awesome team with this DuPont / Nicorette Chevrolet because they build a safe race car. I’ll tell you what, several years ago those types of hits you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

Tony Stewart also took a serious lick on lap 108 when he blew a tire. It sent him hard into the outside wall and he was complaining of some tingling in his legs but said that it went away by the time he got to the infield care center. He was still sore.

"It just blew a right front I guess and went straight in," Stewart said. "It didn't try to turn or anything -- it was a real tight part of the corner. It hit so hard it's got my lower back sore and made my legs almost feel about half-numb and just tingle until we got to the infield care center. We smacked it yesterday -- I tried to knock the fence down yesterday in the Nationwide race and thought I'd made some ground on it and tried to finish it off, but it shows how good the soft walls are -- they don't go anywhere still.”

The Sprint Cup Series moves to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday March 9th, 2008, for the Kobalt Tools 500. The race is scheduled to start at 1:30 PM / Eastern Time on Fox.


For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)

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