Chase title fight tightens after Carl Edwards takes Texas
FORT WORTH — The occasion was so momentous that Carl Edwards deferred his signature post-victory back flip for the first time in his Sprint Cup career.
Actually, it had more to do with the raindrops on the door of his No. 19 Toyota and the sheen on the Texas Motor Speedway pavement than the gaze he could now cast toward the Sprint Cup final at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For Edwards, leading the final 36 dry laps at Texas, and winning a rain-shortened AAA Texas 500 settled a very unsettled playoff situation, launching him from a virtual must-win situation after a costly tire failure last week at Martinsville Speedway and into the elite group of four drivers eligible to win the Sprint Cup title. For a driver who lost the 2011 title to Tony Stewart on a tiebreaker, the championship at NASCAR’s highest level would be his first.
“When we made it to this round, I was very certain, I felt very confident,” said Edwards who won fir the third time this season. “We talked about it. We felt like we could win at Martinsville. We could win Texas. We could win Phoenix.
“I know when the trouble happened at Martinsville, a lot of people probably thought, ‘That's it for them.’ But we really did have a lot of confidence. That's easy to say now because we won the race, but it's the truth, we really did. It's nice to be able to pull through, make that happen. Now we just got to dig in and do it again.”
And watch six others wrestle each other into submission for the remaining two title shots.
Because Phoenix stands to be pretty newsy given their proximity and situations.
Two spots to settle for the one-race, four-driver championship field for Homestead-Miami Speedway. Four drivers — Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin within two points for those slot and a fifth — Kevin Harvick — is a six-time winner on the one-mile oval in the desert.
A Chase for the Sprint Cup that had been uneventful compared to the previous two installments of this iteration — what with its lack of on-track mayhem and off-track violence — will at least have the opportunity for something memorable next Sunday.
As race-winners in this segment, Jimmie Johnson (Martinsville) and Edwards are already secure. That’s where the certainties end. Logano and defending series champion Kyle Busch are tied for third, with JGR’s Matt Kenseth one point behind in fourth and teammate Denny Hamlin another behind in fifth.
Harvick is 18 points further back but enters with a history of success at Phoenix.
“We have done it I don’t know how many times,” Harvick said. “So we will just go there and do what we always do and race as hard as we can.”
Said Hamlin: “Anytime I’ve been below (the cut line) on an elimination race I’ve found a way to get in on the final in the elimination round so I like our chances. It’s a pressure race and I like pressure.”
“I would’ve loved to win this week and I’d really love to win next week so that’s the plan every week is you show up and try to win,” Kenseth said. “Obviously, Kevin is dominant is an understatement at Phoenix so you almost have to pencil him in for that third spot. So, really I feel like the rest of us are fighting for that fourth spot next week.
"You know, we’re just going to have to go there. It hasn’t necessarily been our best track but we’ve run pretty well there lately so we just have to go there with the idea to try and win the race, try to lead some laps, get some bonus points and hopefully get a good enough finish.”
It’s going to be a common sentiment. And it’s going to make things interesting.
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