If you’ve missed Carl Edwards this season, you haven’t been alone.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver who challenged Jimmie Johnson for last year’s Sprint Cup championship and entered 2009 as the favorite has had a quiet year. He hasn’t won a race. He has had some solid, consistent finishes — and a spectacular crash racing to the Talladega finish line — but beyond that, he has given no reason to notice him.
All Edwards needs, though, is one breakout performance to thrust himself into the championship discussion.
Michigan International Speedway is as good a track as any for that to happen. While Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge teams all claim a tie to the state, no team’s tie is as close as Roush Fenway Racing’s. Jack Roush built his empire in Michigan and still calls that state home.
Maybe it’s coincidence, but Roush’s 10 Michigan wins trail only Glen Wood’s 11 for the track record by a car owner. Edwards leads the series in average running position at Michigan (7.4), and teammate Greg Biffle (8.4) is second.
Edwards is still in “make the Chase” mode. Sixth in the standings with 203 points between him and 13th-place Kyle Busch, he doesn’t have much reason to worry.
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“I have to points race for the next four races,” Edwards said. “Then I can be a little more aggressive once the Chase starts. It will definitely be two different styles of racing.”
Rubbing off: Tony Stewart is winning with Hendrick Motorsports engines, but that’s not why his team succeeds. It’s a Hendrick-like work ethic that elevates the team. Its attention to detail and unwillingness to be satisfied with one great finish is reminiscent of the No.48’s near-psychotic work ethic.
Chad Knaus, less than an hour after his team won its third consecutive championship last year — an unprecedented feat for a crew chief — started talking about 2009. It’s easy to imagine Stewart’s crew chief, Darian Grubb, doing the same thing.
The way Hendrick has dominated the last 15 years, it often seemed like the team could only beat itself.
It looks like that’s what’s happening.
But this isn’t because of mistakes within the Hendrick organization, unless you call allowing a team to benefit from your engineering and a crew chief who was formerly one of your brightest minds a mistake.
Some would.
Pit stops: Jeff Gordon is glad Michigan is next on the schedule. That track apparently has treated his aching back well. “I’ll be fine and ready to go this weekend,” Gordon said Tuesday. Gordon has struggled with back pain all season and has had surgical procedures to address the matter. At Watkins Glen, a violent crash against a wall that wasn’t protected by a soft SAFER barrier aggravated his pain. … Mark Martin has fallen dangerously close to missing the Chase despite four wins this season. With a 23rd-place finish at Watkins Glen, Martin fell one spot to 11th in the standings. He’s only 89 points ahead of 13th. … That 13th-place driver is another big winner this season. Busch has three wins and has four more races to squeeze into the top 12. A fourth-place finish last weekend helped, but in the last five races, he has finished worse than 30th twice. … Sunday’s Carfax 400 will be Michigan’s second race of the season. With the state hit especially hard by a sagging economy, Michigan’s races have been a tough sell. … Richard Petty Motorsports is trying something Richard Childress tried earlier this season. The team has switched the crews of A.J. Allmendinger and Reed Sorenson. Sammy Johns will be Sorenson’s crew chief, and Mike Shiplett will move to Allmendinger. Sorenson is 29th in points and Allmendinger 24th.