Rouse: Sprint Cup Atlanta
EDWARDS KEEPS CREEPING CLOSER, BUT REMAINS SPRINT CUP WINLESS, by Charles Rouse
KANSAS CITY – Carl Edwards likes where he and his No. 99 Ford team are, and he’d like to keep the momentum going right on into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship round, beginning the week after next. Edwards, from Columbia, Mo., took the lead for the third time Sunday, beating everyone out of pit lane on lap 295 of 325 after the seventh caution flag of the evening. Tony Stewart regained the lead, however, on the restart after a quick caution on lap 301 to clean up debris on the racetrack, and held on the final 24 laps to post his first Sprint Cup Series win of the season Sunday night in the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Stewart, who has won a race in all 12 season he has competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and 38 times overall, led eight times for 176 laps Sunday. He is the 11th different driver to win this year. “We needed those 10 points (for a victory), and we need this momentum,” Stewart told reporters in Victory Lane. Owner-driver of Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart, had clinched a spot in the Chase for the Cup two weeks ago, but his victory in Atlanta in the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet moved him up two positions in the points standings to fourth.
“It’s been so long,” he said, “I don’t know how many races it’s been, but it seems like an eternity since we won a cup race.” Stewart’s last Sprint Cup victory was 31 races ago at Kansas Speedway in the third Chase event last fall. While Stewart ended his Sprint Cup victory draught at 31, Edwards’ second-place finish at Atlanta in race No. 25 of the 2010 Sprint Cup season kept the Roush-Fenway Racing driver out of the winner’s circle for the 61st consecutive race, dating back to the 2008 season, when Edwards won eight times. After the race, Edwards told an ESPN track reporter, “I know we haven’t looked very good since 2008, but we’re better set now for a run for the championship than we’ver ever been.”
“I used to never believe in momentum, but I’ver never run so poorly for so long,” Edwards said later in the post-race press conference. “I think I understand this team more and I understand where we’ve been going, so for that reason, I believe in this momentum we have and I believe it will apply to future races.” The 31-year-old Edwards may be winless this year in the Sprint Cup Series, but he’s been at the front of the pack more times than not, finishing in the top 10 in half of the 26 races so far and in the top seven in seven of the past eight races.
The No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, driven by four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports, crossed the finish line third at Atlanta behind Stewart and Edwards on Sunday, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch. Kyle’s big brother Kurt, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Juan Montoya and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top 10. Bowyer, a native of Emporia, Kan., held on to the 12th and final spot in the Chase for the Cup standings with his eighth-place finish in the No. 33 Chevrolet. It was his 13th top-10 finish of the year.
Although he has not yet clinched a spot in the 10-race Chase, it appears Bowyer has enough cushion over his closest challenger, Ryan Newman, that his participation in the Sprint Cup Championship is reasonably assured with just one regular-season race remaining. Asked if he felt they (the Richard Childress Racing team) got what they needed in the race, Bowyer said, “That (an eighth-place finish) is absolutely what we needed,” Bowyer said. It was a hard fought battle. It was good in the daytime. As soon as it went to night, it (the car) got really loose. They just kept adjusting on it and never gave in. The guys in the pits, they got us back up there where we needed to be.”
Jamie McMurray of Joplin. Mo., currently sits in 14th position in the points standings, two places out of the Chase, which begins Sept. 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. He is 128 points behind Bowyer and likely out of the Chase going into Saturday’s race at Richmond International Raceway, another night race.
The Chase field will be finalized after the Air Guard 400 at Richmond, but as of today, the 12 drivers who will compete for this year’s Sprint Cup Championship and their teams are: Kevin Harvick (Richard Childress Racing), Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports), Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing), Tony Stewart (Stewart-Haas Racing), Carl Edwards (Roush-Fenway Racing), Jeff Burton (Richard Childress Racing), Kurt Busch (Penske Racing), Matt Kenseth (Roush-Fenway Racing), Denny Hamlin(Joe Gibbs Racing), Greg Biffle(Roush-Fenway Racing) and Clint Bowyer (Richard Childress Racing).
Charles (Chip) F. Rouse III, the Kansas City Sports Examiner, has spent over 40 years working in and with the news media. Rouse, a journalist by training and a graduate of the University of Kansas, has served in the role of newspaper reporter; in addition to radio and television. To view Chip’s sports articles, including this one, on Examiner.com, please click here. He welcomes your comments at crouse@massappealnews.com.