Carl Edwards might have had plenty of reason to worry as the tires continued to go flat on the cars of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates during Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Simon Pagenaud raced to his first victory for Team Penske by holding off Scott Dixon in the caution-free Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was his fourth at the Bristol half mile. By Lap 125, Junior was back on the lead lap.
“We just battled through it. Junior had trouble at the start and I was 40th when we started the race”. This is just great, man, just awesome. He was tested on restarts by Kurt Busch and rookie Chase Elliott, but he finished 0.76 of a second in front of second-place finisher Dale Earnhardt Jr., who rallied from major mechanical issues to place second for the second straight week.
“The pit crew, the road crew, everyone gets along so good, and Carl treats us with a lot of respect”, Rogers said. “Gained some spots by just being in the right lane”. I felt really good about things for today. “Just lucky on those last restarts”. Money times that you run in the fourth auto someone will be tracked this down every lap times. “I’m having the time of my life and the results are showing”.
“These guys are the best in the world”, Edwards said of his competition in Victory Lane. “I, at no point, felt comfortable”. I know how tough this weekend is going to be. And the way that this team has come together is ideal. “It hurts a little bit”, Truex said. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, and Chevrolet. “We have that first pit stall, my guys will be excited about that, and we’ll just go get ’em”. This was when Edwards ran into a lapped traffic problem. He eventually returned to the lead lap after being two laps down. We only ended up losing two laps and that gave us a shot to get back. “Definitely a long afternoon, but had a fast vehicle, and that was the biggest thing that kept us alive”.
The series points leader entering the 500-lap event started fifth Sunday but endured tire problems and handling issues that caused several cautions. Another tore issue on lap 323 sent Kenseth into the wall a second time after he had gotten back up to third in the running order. Kyle Busch, trying for his third straight Sprint Cup win, blew two right front tires, hit the wall twice and retired from the race in 38th place. “They didn’t tell us what the penalty was, but he shouldn’t be leading the race”. Edwards and Johnson are the only drivers with more than two Cup wins at Texas.
David Ragan brought out the next caution on Lap 212 when he went up in smoke on the backstretch, forcing the yellow flag to once again be displayed. Edwards restarted fifth on Lap 274.
Kyle Busch now leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with 259 points so far for the season. Another Gibbs Camry fell victim when Matt Kenseth’s crew failed to get a wheel tight on Lap 278. But re-starting second on the final re-start, the elder Busch couldn’t replicate the pass and could only watch as Edwards pulled away once more. Busch was able to take the lead for 41 laps, while Harvick 13 laps earlier.
Busch’s final smack into the ball was his hardest of the day, leaving him with a battered vehicle that marked its territory with a path of oil. Even when any number of problems could have derailed him, Edwards was flawless and the tires held up to the pressure of performing at Bristol. We had a really great auto yesterday and we were fastest in practice. Honestly, that run I was backing up and I wasn’t really going to go fast. I mean seriously, of their six pit stops the slowest was only 12.64 seconds in length. “He keeps a level head when we have down days…” “And we weren’t really that good”. “We drove up from the back to the front a couple times and showed them what we’re made of, but unfortunately it doesn’t matter when you’re in the garage”. No one was more surprised to be there at the end, fighting for a podium finish, than Earnhardt, whose race got off to an auspicious start.
Tennessee native Trevor Bayne will start 10 at his him track. Michael Annett 32. Jeffrey Earnhardt 33. Ryan Newman and Logano rounded out the top 10.
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(23) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500. Paul Menard 16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 17.
