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The Hot Pass: Edwards proves he's in title fight
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- NASCAR asks for U-turn in Mayfield case
- Stewart spins Busch for Daytona win
- Mayfield stays away from Daytona
Analysis:
The seventh caution of the day — prompted by Denny Hamlin's blown engine — set up a two-lap duel between Edwards and Busch at the point. Busch's No. 18 Toyota didn't have nearly the juice to catch the No. 99 Ford, which had improved its lead by 0.463-seconds with one lap to race. While it was the flag stand waving the white flag, it could have just as easily been Busch as Edwards extended his advantage to 0.948-seconds at the finish.
Still, Edwards is too shrewd of a competitor to take Busch for granted.
"Kyle is really good on restarts and I wasn't going to let him get the kind of run on me that he got on Jimmie Johnson a few weeks ago," Edwards said. "So I just didn't want to have to go through the pain. I did everything I could to have the best restart I could and it worked out great."
With David Ragan tying a career-best third-place showing, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top five and Jamie McMurray crossing the finish line 10th, it became evident that if there's one organization that can stop Busch, it will be Roush Fenway Racing.
Despite early success in the 3M Performance 400 by Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and June victor Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports' MIS effort wasn't nearly as stout as the program has been in the past. Johnson was the top finishing HMS Chevrolet at 17th, despite dropping down a lap, followed by teammate Casey Mears.
Following the race, Busch admitted that his greatest competition now and in the Chase will be Edwards.
"Carl's right there," Busch said. "He has been all year. He's the guy that we've got to race on these mile-and-a-half, two-mile racetracks. He's been decent at the other race tracks too, but not as stout as he is at these — and there's a lot of those in the Chase.
"We've still got some work cut out for us."
Busch singled out shorter, flat tracks where the team needs to step up its program during the play-offs.
"Loudon, we've got to work on, Martinsville and Phoenix," Busch added. "Those are racetracks that I feel like we need to gain on. I don't feel like we struggled there in the first part of the year.
"But we need to get better at qualifying up front at those tracks so we don't have to fight for track position all day, so we can just run our own race and try to keep up in the top five, top 10. If we can get better at passing guys at those tracks, that'll make it easier."
Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne were particularly complimentary of the No. 99 pit crew that underwent a change at the rear tire changer's position last week. Despite qualifying 27th, Edwards was able to maintain the point for a dominant 84 laps thanks to the combined strength of the Doug Yates engines and the near flawless execution of the pit crew.
Although Busch flexed his muscle later in the race, Osborne made the necessary adjustments in what Edwards referred to as "the key to the race."
"It was a challenge all day," Osborne said. "We didn't qualify well, obviously starting 27th makes it a little tense early in the race. But Carl did a great job with the car coming through the field.
"We were pretty loose there and the 18 was able to stretch a pretty big lead (from laps 142 to 165). Having the ability to pit again and work on the car (when the debris caution was called on Lap 166) was a relief. Carl did a great job from there on out."
Edwards picked up just 20 points on points leader Busch with the win. Yet given his five victories this season — and with just three races until the beginning of the Chase — it appears the pair will line up one-two and Edwards predicts the Chase will be "spectacularly competitive."
"We're getting to the point that we can win at any race track we go to," Edwards said. "Our pit crew has stepped up their game. That was our weakness for a long time. The guys have repeatedly worked harder week after week to become better. So yea, I feel confident at all the race tracks we go to.
"My psyche and mentality is pretty much fixed on I'm the greatest race-car driver that ever lived, know what I'm saying? David Pearson told me that if you don't believe that, you don't belong in a race car."
If that level of confidence worked for Pearson, who won three titles and 105 races, then it's very likely that Edwards could be the next Ford champion.
Points play
Third-place finisher David Ragan made the most of other drivers' misfortunes at Michigan as he closed to within 26 points of 12th-place Denny Hamlin, who dropped from ninth after his engine broke with six laps remaining in the race.
"It definitely would've been great to win but you don't want to take an unnecessary risk and take out a top-five finish or finish 20th," said Ragan, who is currently tied with Clint Bowyer on points, but sits 14th based on top-five and top-10 finishes. "The 18 and the 99 were just a little better than us and after we didn't pit (for tires) that last run, we were going to be sitting ducks depending on how the cautions worked out.
"I just drove as hard as I could and tried not to make any mistakes. At this point in the season a third-place is great, a win would've been better but a 20th-place finish would have been devastating for us, trying to make the Chase."
Fourth-place Greg Biffle and eighth-place Kevin Harvick each benefited three positions from Jeff Gordon's adversities while sixth through 12th are separated by just 136 points.
Perhaps the most dramatic comments came in the concession speech of Hamlin, who apparently see no hope in the postseason.
"This was a new engine package," Hamlin said. "We made stupid choices. Dash malfunctions, motor problems — at this point we don't deserve to be in the Chase."
Like Hamlin, Kasey Kahne was also hit by engine gremlins and finished 40th on Sunday, dropping three spots in the standings to 11th in the standings.
On the flip side of the point standings, Scott Riggs, who is auditioning for next year's ride, finished 15th and moved the No. 66 back into the top 35, taking over AJ Allmendinger's spot.
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