November 3, 2008
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photo
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Edwards Celebrates Victory in Texas
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While everyone was stopping for fuel in the waning moments of the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards and Crew Chief Bob Osborne gambled using a gas mileage strategy to make it 69 laps (103 miles) on a tank of gas. The trick was to just go half throttle -- he had a big lead anyway because everyone else was pitting. It worked, much to the team's surprise, Edwards picked up his eighth victory this year and the 15th of his 155 race career.
“First Bob said, ‘We’re two-tenths of a lap short, so conserve.’ Then he came back and said, ‘No, we’re four laps short, just go real hard and we’ll pit.’ Then he came back again and said, ‘We’ll conserve.’ So just by all that I kind of knew that he wasn’t too sure about it, but I’m really glad it worked out," said Edwards. "It’s unreal. It’s a great day. The fans are awesome. My guys are awesome. We’re closing ground on Jimmie, that’s cool.”
Jeff Gordon, who started on the pole fell a lap down and was able to make it up. He also was using the same fuel strategy that Edwards was using and finished 12 seconds behind Edwards in second place.
"That Lucky Dog really played in our favor because we able to roll around there quite a few laps and come in later and top off, I conserved a little bit under yellow," said Gordon. "When they said we were one lap short, I really wasn't that worried. I was still letting off real early. We didn't know the No. 99 was going to go for it, obviously a great call by Steve Letarte on the DuPont/Nicorette Chevrolet. Great team work all day. It was a heck of a fight for us. Started on the pole, the car was good. But we got off, kind of a typical Texas for us but fought our way back on the lead lap. Great, great strategy by Steve Letarte. Second is like a win for me here at Texas."
Jamie McMurray finished third and Clint Bowyer was fourth. Greg Biffle brought his Ford home in fifth place followed by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Martin Truex Jr. and David Reutimann to round out the top ten.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson went into the race leading by 183 points but when Johnson finished 15th, one lap down, Edwards was able to slash 77 off of Johnson's lead, to 106 points.
"There are two races left," said Johnson. "I have known all along we were going to have to fight every week for this thing. We had a nice big points lead and we still have a great points lead, but in racing anything can happen and usually does. Today didn't go our way; it went the way the No. 99 needed, the No. 16 and those guys. We will go Phoenix, one of our great tracks and do it again next week. I hate it, we are definitely disappointed with the performance tonight, the first couple of runs. After that we were comparable, we were fair, we were doing what we needed to. We could just never get back on the lead lap and that is the way it goes."
Running second at the time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of fuel with about six laps left and finished 20th.
“I told Tony Eury Jr., you know, don’t worry about that (being short on fuel)," said Earnhardt. "We all tried to win the race and we win as a team and lose as a team. We need to figure out the fuel mileage deal because Jeff Gordon stayed out as well, and just figure out what we need to do. We probably just should have started saving a little bit earlier.”
Sam Hornish Jr. scored a 23rd-place finish and claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth consecutive race and for the 11th time this season.
"No improvement we had over last week because I didn’t run into the wall on like lap 3," Hornish said. "We just need to keep working on our program. I think it’s getting better; it’s just going to take some time. Unfortunately, we don’t have a whole lot of time -- so we’re going to keep working at it.”
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the ninth race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the November 9th, Checker Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with live, high-definition coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and PRN radio.
For full final race results...
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