EDWARDS STRUGGLES ALL NIGHT UNDER THE LIGHTS AT LOWE'S
Carl Edwards, No. 60 Scotts Water Smart Ford Fusion
Carquest Auto Parts 300/Concord, NC/May 24, 2008
Carl Edwards - Race Recap
CONCORD, NC (May 24, 2008) - Edwards was really positive going into Lowe's Motor Speedway after a great test there just two weeks ago. He has had some pretty good runs on the 1.5-mile oval, but hasn't always had the finishes to match. The scene was set for an exciting race for Edwards and the No. 60 Scotts Water Smart crew under the lights in Concord and in front of the home crowd. Edwards struggled the entire 300 miles and at the end was able to salvage a 13th place finish as Kyle Busch took the checkers.
Edwards started from the 7th position, but immediately started falling backwards. He dropped to 9th by completion of the first lap. The first of 12 caution flags flew on lap 4 and Edwards had dropped to 16th, but stayed out, advising that his car was really loose in. The race went green on lap 8 and he resumed racing from the 16th position.
On lap 26 Edwards pitted on the second caution for major adjustments. The Scotts crew changed four tires, fuel, and went three rounds down on the trackbar. Edwards pitted from the 17th position and resumed racing in 18th. He struggled through six more cautions and fluctuated from 10th to 20th over the next 135 laps.
On lap 161 the eighth caution flag flew when the No. 9 and 47 cars wrecked in turn 3. Edwards pitted for a splash of gas and two right side tires in a 7.9 pit stop. Edwards fought hard to get back into the top-10, but was never able to get there. He flirted with the 11th position through one more caution but then he ran over debris. Edwards pitted for fuel, four tires and a wedge adjustment. He entered in 11th, but reentered the race in 19th on lap 179.
Edwards struggled with an ill handling car for the remainder of the race. He stayed out on the track during the last three cautions and finished the race in the 13th position.
"All the guys on the Scotts Ford Fusion worked really hard tonight," commented crew chief Pierre Kuettel. "We had a really good test here at Charlotte. Came back with pretty much the same stuff and had actually gone back to work and tried to learn some more stuff. Applied those items and I think that was the part that bit us. We struggled a little bit with that. It's so different here when you test at the right time and then you come back and you practice during the daytime. It's pretty hard to figure a car out because you don't know how much it's going to change from day to night. It's just a bad judgment call on a set of shocks. Other than that we'll go back to work."
"It was really frustrating," stated Edwards. "We were just not fast at all and it was very frustrating. It was just a long, long night. We just couldn't go. I thought we were pretty good in practice. I think we had the wrong shocks on it or something. We were just slow all night. We got up there all right and then we ran over a piece of debris and had to get tires and that was so frustrating because we would have probably been top 10, but 13th is all right."
The No. 60 team will look to rebound at Dover International Speedway next week on concrete. Save-a-Lot will be running their colors for the fourth time this year. Edwards survived a disappointing finish at Lowe's, but maintained his third place in the overall Nationwide Series points standings behind leader Clint Bowyer and second place driver Kyle Busch. Edwards has had lots of success at the Monster Mile and plans on digging into the points there.
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About Roush Racing
Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR's largest team operating 14 motorsports teams, five in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; five in the Busch Series with Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, McMurray, Ragan, Todd Kluever, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Danny O'Quinn Jr.; and three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Edwards, Peter Shepherd, Travis Kvapil, Erik Darnell and T.J. Bell; and one in the ARCA/REMAX Series with Colin Braun and Darnell. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com. For sponsorship inquiries please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.
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