| | THE STRUGGLERS | Edwrads, Burton, Gordon rally after problems to top-15s | |
| | By David Caraviello / NASCAR.COM AVONDALE, AZ -- He incurred a penalty for an over-the-wall crewman who jumped into the pit box too soon. He lost time when a tire got away during a pit stop. He lost a lap when he was trapped on pit road. But Carl Edwards still rallied to record a top-five finish Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway, more proof of the charmed life the Roush Fenway Racing driver is living right now.
"An adventure, to say the least," he said. "We passed a lot of cars and then we just had a problem in the pits, got a penalty. We came back quickly, though. Everything fell into place, [interim crew chief] Robbie [Reiser] made some great calls, but then we had another bad pit stop, and that set us back. But to come out of here fourth with all the trouble we had, that's a blessing. I'm not going to complain too much about that."
He wasn't alone. Edwards was one of several drivers who experienced trouble in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, but came back to record strong finishes. Jeff Burton spun in fluid dropped by Ryan Newman, but rallied to finish sixth. Jeff Gordon lost a lap when he was trapped on pit road under caution, got back in the top 10, and settled for 13th after being forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.
But no one had a more adventurous night than Edwards, coming off his series-leading third Sprint Cup victory last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. He didn't lead a lap Saturday night, but stayed among the leaders for much of the event, running as high as second. But on an early pit stop, NASCAR deemed that Edwards' front tire changer had been a touch too eager scrambling over the wall and sent the No. 99 car to the tail end of the field. It got worse -- while Edwards was on pit road, Joe Nemechek crashed in Turn 1, and the resulting caution trapped the Roush driver a lap down.
But Edwards stormed back, receiving a free pass to get back on the lead lap, and at one point was as fast as any of the other cars on the track. He gradually climbed from 20th to 15th to ninth to fourth, but ran out of laps before he could challenge eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson. "I don't know if I've ever passed that many cars on a racetrack, ever," he said after a fourth-place finish that kept him ninth in points.
"That's a race-winning car right there. That's a good one. That's cool," Edwards said "It's good that we've done really, really well on the mile-and-a-halfs, and to be able to come here and have that fast of a racecar, a car that I thought could win the race under some different circumstances, that's really good. My hat's off to Jimmie. Those guys have been working hard, getting better and better every week, they earned that one."
Polesitter Newman had a seal in his engine fail on Lap 133, and the resulting explosion caused all kinds of havoc for all kinds of people. Burton was running behind the No. 12 car when it let go, and spun out in the fluid dropped on the racetrack. But he kept the car off the wall, and continued his march from his 39th-place starting position to his eventual sixth-place finish. He also kept the points lead for a third consecutive week, improving to 80 ahead of Kyle Busch.
"We were going to run 11th, 12th or something like that, but [crew chief] Scott [Miller] made a great call and got us a sixth. We will certainly take it," Burton said. "I am disappointed in how we ran, I am disappointed in myself. We are just missing something. We had no damage to the car when we spun in the oil from the 12 when it blew up. We were probably pretty lucky there was no damage, we got a little dirt track racing in, but it worked out for us. There was a little bit of luck involved there."
Gordon had no such luck. Like Edwards, he was sitting on pit road when Nemechek crashed, and fell a lap down. He received a free pass, took two tires during a pit stop to pick up track position, and was up to seventh place before having to make a late stop for fuel. His eventual 13th-place finish helped him improve one spot to 13th in series points.
"I was very proud of the fact that we were able to fight back and get our lap back and then battle with two tires up there," said Gordon, the defending champion of the Phoenix spring race. "We were flirting with a top-10. And then of course we didn't have the fuel mileage that some of those other guys did and so, you know, we didn't stay out."
| | Posted April 14, 2008 , 10:21 pm EST
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