CHARLOTTE, NC – After wining Saturday night’s SPRINT All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Carl Edward’s decided to take a victory slide on the infield grass. Unfortunately, the stunt did not go as planned. After leaving the pavement, the car’s splitter hit something in the grass, possibly a man-hole cover, lifting the car and destroying the front end. "As soon as I turned to the grass...it just dug in the splitter.” Carl continued, “ I didn't expect that," The 99 car’s crew chief, Bob Osborne was not amused and said “the 99 program does not have disposable cars.” But Carl still found it humorous. “Bob has been doing a really good job of keeping the splitter down," Edwards said. "It helps on the racetrack, but it doesn't help on the grass." I guess it is hard to get upsetting after winning a $1.2 million purse. I also assume that Mr. Roush was ok with it – a win is a win. Edwards exited the car with one of his infamous back-flips.
Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch looked to have the strongest cars all evening. After a competition 10-minute break, and then a mandatory pit stop for tires, Edwards and Busch were fighting for position on the restart. The Edwards pit crew did a valiant job getting Carl out first. Busch really is one of the best drag-racers out there, but Edwards was able to pull it off and gain the top position with Busch hard on his tail. “I’ve been practicing that little part there,” Edwards said. “There are so many parts of this sport that you have to be good at. Kyle is so good at that. I was really nervous about that last run.” David Reutiman finished third with Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle rounding out the top-5.
The victory for Carl Edwards is further evidence of the domination of Roush-Fenway, particularly on the 1.5 mi ovals. The victory makes it 4-in-a-row for the Roush-Fenway contingent with Edwards win at the 2010 season finale at Homestead and this year’s Las Vegas race combined with Kenseth’s victory at Texas. When Jack Roush was asked if they had found the trick, he was adamant to say there are no tricks. “It's not a matter of finding a trick,” Roush said. “With all the inspectors they have today, they won't let you have a trick. It's a matter of doing the complete job better than everybody else.”
Edwards said the Ford engines are key. “I feel like Jack and Doug [Yates] have got the engines to a point where we can run with and beat most of the guys on the race track, go down the straightaways,” Edwards said. He also added that Bob Osborne and the crew are doing a great job making “the cars good.” At Burns we’d like to believe that the Burns exhaust technology has something to do with it.
So, with the next two races at Charlotte and Kansas being at 1.5 mi tracks, can Roush Fenway keep it up? Stay tuned to find out. The Coca Cola 600 next weekend is the longest race of the season and will definitely put the Roush equipment to the test.
In drag racing news, Burns customer Shane Gray of Gray Motorsports went up against Burns customer Greg Stanfield at the NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka Kansas in the Pro Stock finals. Before Sunday, Stanfield was 3-0 against Gray but had never gone against each other in a final round. The Nitrofish GXP of Stanfield put up a valiant effort posting a 0.040s light against Shane’s 0.047s. Stanfield kept the starting line advantage to almost half track when the Gray Motorsports power came on beating Stanfield’s et of 6.693s run by a mere 2 feet, posting a 6.679s blast! Shane’s top speed was 206.95mph vs 206.29s for Stanfield. This is Shane’s second Pro Stock victory. “We’ve struggled pretty much since the year started, had car issues, engine issues, we just went back to the shop, regrouped, dissected the motor, dissected people, made probably 100 test runs, came here, and the car ran really well,” Gray said. “This win goes to [crew chiefs] Ian [Landies] and Craig [Hankinson] and the entire Service Central team.” What made the victory sweeter for Gray was that he had to eliminate BOTH KB cars in the elimination rounds. Not an easy feat!
No comments:
Post a Comment