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Edwards never lets up on the pressure

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Jeff Hammond

FOX race analyst Jeff Hammond is a former NASCAR crew chief who led Darrell Waltrip to two of his three Cup championships. The duo also teamed up to win the 1989 Daytona 500. Prior to that, Hammond was the jackman for Cale Yarborough for all three of his Cup championships. He has 43 Cup wins as a crew chief.

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Updated Sep 1, 2009 1:31 PM ET
     
 
As a race fan, it had to be exciting watching them race Sunday in Canada in the rain because you just know these guys are on the edge of being out of control. Now as a competitor, I realize we owe it to our fans to put on the best show that we can, but Sunday I thought we went from racing to a demolition derby. The sad part about it is too many of those guys were not skilled to run in the rain, and the cars were not set up properly. This was now the second year in a row the race was run in the rain, but for me personally, there are just too many cars that were torn up. Guys got aggressive, and they don't have the control that they need. I am sure there are probably a lot of fans out there that liked Sunday's race, but for someone like me who has been on the other side of the equation and had to work on busted up race cars on a Monday morning, it was tough for me to sit back and enjoy that race. Goodyear is to be commended for putting together a great rain tire. The one problem, however, is with a better tire, the guys tried to go faster. All that made for was bigger wrecks. See the issue of racing in the rain is that it's not something that we can practice. You saw Sunday the end result — a lot of torn-up race cars. The combination of lack of experience racing in the rain and not having the right setup for a car racing in the rain was brutal. The goal obviously is to perfect this so they can race each other and not have a crash-fest. Maybe they will have to come up with a plan to take folks to a road course, wet the track down and let them test on it so they can learn what they need to do. I am just still not sure these cars, in these conditions, are what we need to be doing. While you feel good for Carl Edwards for winning the race, you clearly had to feel sorry for Marcos Ambrose who was the class of the field. He made a mistake right there at the end, and it cost him the race. The sad thing is that Marcos drove a flawless race all day long but made one mistake for one moment on the last corner of the race. Can Marcos walk away with his head held high? Absolutely. At the same time, knowing his personality, I think I saw him as frustrated Sunday as I have ever seen him. He answered the reporter's question, but you could tell he didn't want to talk anymore. You have to feel for a guy like that. He knew on that final restart that Edwards was charging. He knew that Edwards was going to force the issue. Edwards is going to make you have to beat him. As you saw, that's what it came down to. So Ambrose has to be very frustrated now. We are used to seeing the smiling Australian, and he sure wasn't smiling when he got out of the race car. Carl Edwards, on the other hand, has been on somewhat of a roll in the Nationwide series as of late. While most of that doesn't translate or carry over to the Cup side of things, like most everything else in this world, if you can get some momentum and confidence in what you are doing, then it does carry over. It's all good. For Edwards, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. While I still think they are off a little bit on the Sprint Cup side of things, there is a reason why Edwards is the leader of the Roush Fenway group for the Chase. It is because he drives so hard each and every lap of the race. He just races extremely hard. It allows Edwards to maintain a good day and a good finish sometimes even when things are working against him. Even though they haven't made it to Victory Lane yet on the Cup side, the way he approaches these races has put him solidly in the 2009 Chase field. I think that speaks volumes about Edwards. Edwards is extremely frustrated that he hasn't gotten to Victory Lane in a Cup race this season, but it doesn't mean that he has quit. He just keeps on driving harder and harder each race. It seems like it's paying off in dividends, maybe not in the win column, but in the all important points column. I really believe they will get this thing turned around. I truly expect them to be better in the Chase than they have been in the regular season. I think the new Ford engine will be a benefit to him. I think if Edwards can get a decent start to the Chase at Loudon, N.H., which is the first Chase event, it will propel him forward in the Chase. That's the one thing about the Chase that you can't lose sight of. Once you make it into the Chase, well, it's a whole new ballgame. You can completely forget about how it went in the regular season because it doesn't matter any more.
Tagged: Marcos Ambrose, Carl Edwards

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