With Something to Prove, Edwards Wins Samsung 500

	Enter your search termsSubmit search form
	Web Insiderracingnews.com

By Ron Felix

CIA Stock Photo Carl Edwards Celebrates

Carl Edwards was the favorite, picked by the other drivers and crew men, to win the Samsung 500 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway -- and he didn't disappoint. Edwards started on the outside of the front row but fell back initially on the start. Edwards slowly worked his way back to the front and Edwards dominated the race in the second half. In a green-white-checkers finish, he held off Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch for his third victory this year. It was his 10th win in 128 career races. Edwards built up a seven-second lead before the final caution came out. The caution allowed Johnson to close on Edwards. But Edwards never gave Johnson a chance to pass him in the final laps.

Edwards felt like he had something to prove after the team was penalized by NASCAR for a loose oil tank lid following the race at Las Vegas a month ago. His crew chief Bob Osborne was suspended for six weeks and Matt Kenseth's former crew chief, Robby Reiser, was filling in for him.

"This is for Bob Osborne sitting at home," said Edwards, as he talked to his crew on the radio. "Good job guys.

“That was a really good race car. It was extremely competitive out there," Edwards continued. "There were a lot of cars that were virtually the same speed, so it was really difficult to get the track position. But, once we got it, the car was really good in clean air. At the end, that restart, might not look exciting to people watching, but it was real exciting for me in the race car to try not to spin those tires and hold off Jimmie. To win here, it means a lot. My first trip here was with Tony Roper. That was the weekend that he got killed here, and he was a great guy and it always means a lot to come back here, and to run well and to win these races is very special to me.”

Although Johnson finished second, he knew he had been beaten bad.

"On the restart, he spun his tires a little bit and I was with him," Johnson said. "I felt like I should maybe try the outside around through (Turns) 1 and 2, but with all the oil dry that was down from the caution before, I knew that would be a bad decision. And I went into (Turns) 1 and 2 with him and he got away from me a little bit. And we just kind of ran from there on out. Once you get up to speed, the cars are so dependent on the aerodynamics that the guy in front has a major, major advantage; more than we’ve ever had. I didn't have anything at the end for Carl."

Ryan Newman finished fourth and Denny Hamlin was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer. Bowyer had been running fifth but wrecked when he tangled with Denny Hamlin just a few feet from the start-finish line.

"I hate that the day had to end like that," said Bowyer. "Gil (his crew chief) made the right call for two tires and we picked up a couple spots quick. The Jack Daniel's Chevy was in position for a top-five finish but, when we were coming off turn four, the No. 11 clipped us in the right-rear and that was it. We got back into the top 10 though so it wasn't all bad."

Biggest surprise of the day: Jeff Gordon had a car that just wouldn't handle. He had his hands full before finally wrecking the car and eventually finishing 43rd in the race. It was only the second time in his career that he has finished as low as 43rd.

"I can't remember the last time we struggled this bad," said a dejected Gordon. "Yes, it is just a bad day gone worse for our DuPont Impala SS team. I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't. We are just really, really bad and I lost control of the car and I was hanging on just every single lap. We are going to fix the car and get back out there and do some testing. We have never felt anything like this. We saw the No. 48 in Las Vegas with their troubles but we haven't sensed anything like that until we got here and we have been way off. We have to find it because we can't go through the year like this."

Pole sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. got his five bonus points for leading a lap but faded much like Jeff Gordon did. The car was almost undriveable but he wrestled the car to a 12th place finish.

"We just chased the handling of the car the entire day," Earnhardt said. "We had it too tight at the end there. It's frustrating. Just a thousandth of an inch adjustment can just mess things up. We went back and forth all day long."

Patrick Carpentier scored a 28th-place finish in the Samsung 500 and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season.

“I’m really happy," said Carpentier. "We’re getting better in the race time and that’s important. We need to get those points and a couple of top-30s there so I’m pretty happy about that. When you spend so much time qualifying it takes the whole race to get the car to work properly, you know, just sliding and sliding and sliding and fixing it and fixing it. You get in the race and we made some changes this morning and the Valvoline Dodge was pretty good at the end. I decided to go out the back. I didn’t want to risk it and just get the points. We’re still in a safe mode as we say. I don’t want to race anybody so I just wave them by. But I can’t wait to start racing. We need the points.”

The Sprint Cup Series moves to Phoenix International Raceway next Saturday April 12th, 2008, for the Subway Fresh Fit 500K. The race is scheduled to start at 8:00 PM / Eastern Time on Fox.


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

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web Insiderracingnews.com