WIN SURPRISES EDWARDS
BRISTOL, TENN. Carl Edwards was surprised to become a championship contender on a night when Bristol Motor Speedway felled many of NASCAR’s biggest stars in a race full of attrition.
Edwards won Sunday’s raindelayed Food City 500, putting himself in strong position to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup with his first win at the 0.533-mile oval in almost six years.
“We’re in the Chase, and we’re going to go out and win this championship,” Edwards said. “I can’t believe we turned this thing around. We were terrible Saturday (in practice).”
Edwards becomes the fourth winner of 2014 in the first season in which victories help cement berths in the 16-driver, 10-race championship playoff that ends the season.
“I’m part of a group of guys that can go have some fun and focus on the final 10 races to get to this championship,” Edwards said. “I’ve been a little bit jealous of those guys who have wins this early. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be able to come to the racetrack and have all that pressure off of you. Now we’ll get to go have some fun. I’m really excited about the next 22 races. That’ll be a blast.”
Roush Fenway Racing teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second, and Aric Almirola took a career-best third to make it a topthree sweep for Fords. Tony Stewart scored a season-best fourth, followed by Marcos Ambrose.
Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10.
Edwards earned his 22nd career victory under yellow on lap 503 because of a downpour that began shortly after the caution waved on lap 499 of 500.
NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said it appeared someone had leaned on an override switch in the flagstand that illuminated the track’s caution lights. The flagman then waved the yellow flag six seconds later, and NASCAR froze the field. The rain began a few minutes later on lap 500, and the race was called on lap 503 instead of holding a green-whitecheckered finish, which Edwards was bracing for.
“I was fully prepared for smashing into each other, bouncing off the walls, wrecking each other for the win,” he said. “That’s what I expected.”
His instincts were correct, as Stenhouse said, “(I) would use the bumper if the opportunity was there. If you get the win, you’re in the Chase and you can let the rest take care of itself later.”
Said team owner Jack Roush: “I had a picture in my mind’s eye of three or four of those Fords ended up in a hair ball and letting one of the Toyotas or Chevrolets behind come through for the win. So I had that bit of horror, but that was an old man’s anxiety.”
The muted ending was the last bizarre episode of a wild race in which several leaders’ shots at a victory went up in smoke — many of them literally. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Jamie McMurray all finished outside the top 10 after leading laps with strong cars that were neutralized by mechanical woes, tire problems or crashes.
The last big twist occurred with 50 laps remaining after Harvick slapped the wall because of a mechanical problem. The front of his No. 4 Chevrolet was in flames when he stopped in the pits, but Harvick emerged from the cockpit unscathed.
Harvick took the lead from Kenseth in the pits during a caution with 104 laps remaining. Kenseth slipped from first to third when his team had trouble changing tires because of damage from an earlier crash. Kenseth, who led a race-high 164 laps, struggled after the restart with 97 laps remaining. He slid into the outside wall and out of the top 10 but managed to avoid bringing out a yellow.
It was one of many strange developments after inclement weather caused two delays that totaled about five hours. It was the second of four Cup races this year to suffer weather delays of several hours. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the season-opening Daytona 500 after a rain delay of more than six hours.
This race started more than 90 minutes after its scheduled green flag of 1:13 p.m. ET, and 124 laps were completed before it was stopped at 3:48 p.m. After a delay of 3 hours, 19 minutes, the race was restarted under the lights with Kenseth in the lead.
There were problems for two early leaders in the race. The tread of the right-front tire on Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet came unwound, necessitating a greenflag pit stop that dropped him three laps off the pace.
“The tire still had air in it,” Johnson, who led 44 laps, said during the rain delay. “It didn’t wear it out. Something made it come apart.”
Goodyear engineer Rick Heinrich disputed Johnson’s assessment, saying it was attributable to high wear from a two-tire stop and adding the tire was designed to detach by unwinding.
Logano also faced adversity after losing power steering in his No. 22 Ford, making handling a chore on the high-banked oval.