Monthly Archives: November 2011

People can say that they want to but NASCAR has its similarities to other sports in its off-seasons.  In pro football if a team has success, there is still changes made to them, I have been an pro football fan all of my life and have noticed that the major players are usually re-signed and then there are some unhappy team members that leave or get canned.  Racing is the same-way, no matter how you want to look at it.

There are several reasons that things happen in sports.  Injuries are one of the major reasons, losing, and money play a huge part in decisions that are made in the off-season in all sports and it will be this season.  There are some things that are going on at Roush Fenway Racing that none of us will know the whole story about, I have heard stories about people being cut loose because of Roush dropping to three cars, and people leaving because they were able to find better jobs somewhere else.  I think that what a lot of people forget is, every year that a team wins the super bowl, they usually make major cuts to their operation.  Now there is no “true” salary cap in NASCAR, yet, teams do have to put a base salary down every year to run a successful operation.

All I have heard this past week has been words of worry from fans.  However, notice that the crew chief is still there that led the team and that the driver is still there.  Jack Roush signed the two main components to a race team.  I do know that a new car chief and engineer are likely going to be put in place next season, however, both are for two different reasons I can’t say why.  One I wrote about a couple of months ago on a request by my best friend, and I wrote about Pierre Kuettel likely not coming back I would put now it is very likely and I would give it a 90 to 10 chance, that P.K. will not return, and I know that there are some guys that have parted ways with RFR because of other reasons.

However, where I think a lot of people are forgetting is the fact that changes occur and rebuilding process have to begin.  It is different for people on the outside of the sport to realize the reasons that we see changes made every year.  I mean think about this, who in their right mind would have expected Tony Stewart and Darrien Grubb to part ways after winning the title this season.   Changes in sports, including in NASCAR, are like the weather, they change everyday as people say.  I compare it to the Colts losing Manning at the beginning of this season, no one was really expecting it and they are the worst team in the book this year.  I don’t think the rebuilding process will be as bad as people are expecting,

This is just my opinion, there are a lot of guys in the organization that were expandable, meaning move from Nationwide up to Cup and can move into a tougher position.  I believe that it could take a few weeks to really notice things but Edwards and Bob Osborne know how to make things turn around.  I believe there is a confidence level between the driver and his crew chief that will help keep this team on top of its game.  But the changes being made in the off-season gives everyone a good comparison to what happens when teams win championships or are the runner ups in other sports. 

Changes happen, it is something people have to come with the understanding of.

It’s been two days since the race for the championship ended and I think it settled in on all of us Carl Edwards fans.  However, I have been hearing a lot of fans make comments that the loss to Stewart in the title race would hurt Carl Edwards when it comes to competing for the 2012 Sprint Cup Series championship.  I don’t think so and there are a few reasons why I believe this.

Carl Edwards commented when he re-signed with RFR he wanted to sign with a team he knew could compete for a title (Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America)

I have been hearing a few comments that Bob Osborne being the crew chief has been a major disaster for this team.  Osborne is a great crew chief and he proved it this season by keeping this team up front for most of this season and it ran consistently up front under the leadership of Osborne, he is a class act like the driver.  I had a debate with a fellow Edwards fans a few years ago that the right combo package for Edwards was having Osborne on his pit box.  The driver and crew chief have to have a mold together and I believe that these two guys have that same championship mold that Johnson and Chad Knaus have and it’s the type of chemistry that doesn’t break.

Listening to these guys over the last 6 or seven years seasons I have seen a lot of great conversations and the two have been able to win 18 races as driver and crew chief.  Now will come the part that matters.  I do know that when Edwards re-signed with Roush Fenway, his crew chief had signed before him.  It was a piece to help keep Edwards with the organization at the time.  It may have helped.  I did hear Edwards say after the race was completed that “Bob Osborne could be his crew chief as long as he wanted to be.” 

The second part is Edwards.  I have read a few people make the comments about him losing the edge because he lost, just as Hamlin did this past season.  I don’t think that you can compare two different drivers on how they will take losing.  Edwards took it like a real champion on how losing, and he has something he is setting his sights on next season, he learned a few things that will come up next season.  Edwards is a very determined and intense driver on the race track and I believe that he will be back in full force next season, because even with a few changes the 99 team will be able to perform at the same level. 

The third part is the Ford Racing FR9 engine.  That engine package is the best performer that Ford has produced in years, and with Doug Yates knowledge and everything else, they will perform on top of their game.  I know people were worried when the 9, 16 and 6 went out of the race on Sunday night but the 99 car held up because there was no experimental engine parts used on their car at Homestead.  The engine package has been great this season, as Roush Fenway Racing ended the season with two drivers in the top-five in points, seven victories, and on the Nationwide Series side they dominated.

There will be some changes coming at Roush Fenway Racing as most have already heard.  We could see that coming with the economy and the way that it has been going this year.  In my mind, I think dropping down to three cars instead of running the four will help Roush Fenway more than hurt them.  And I do believe that the 99 car will be back for some more title action next season.

Carl Edwards knew there was a chance that it could come out like this.  He was three points ahead of Tony Stewart in the championship race before the event started, and he knew that if Stewart won the race, the title went to the driver of the 14 car.  Edwards dominated much of the race, as he led a race high 119 laps and appeared to have the best car on the track until a caution for rain made the race a little different.

Edwards came in and took two tires and fuel and it changed the outcome after Stewart had pitted a few laps before the caution and took four tires.  However, that didn’t mean the Columbia, Missouri native gave up.  Edwards and Stewart put on the best show of determination in the final 40 laps anyone could ask for.  Edwards couldn’t catch Stewart and the tie breaker was Stewart’s five wins in the Chase.  No one had ever won that many races in the ten race Chase.  I give Stewart credit for what he and his team accomplished but for those that ever criticized Carl Edwards as being classless, they were shown the real Carl Edwards tonight.  The guy that came through the racing ranks and put his business card in a racing magizine almost 11 years ago, has come along in that short time and he showed pure class in his post race interview.

“We knew all the circumstances that could happen, but this was the least probable outcome,” Edwards said. “I was prepared for anything. I told my family before the race, whatever the outcome, win, lose or draw, I want to be a good example for my kids.”

Carl Edwards is a class act for this sport, championship or not, he garnered in what he had accomplished.  He came over the radio and told his team, “Guys, keep your heads up,” Edwards said. “Bob, you’re the best crew chief out here. I appreciate everything you guys did for me this year. We will go home, work hard and beat them next year.”

And when Stewart came onto the front stretch the first man to congratulate him – Carl Edwards.  I have listened to a lot of fans sit and criticize Carl Edwards in the past for being classless, for being two-faced, and for being too aggressive.  People accuse him of telling the media what they want to hear, however, tonight came straight from the heart.  I have watch this man come from the unknown guy from Missouri to being a superstar driver.  There are fans before myself that seen this guy come from that local short tracker to the guy that everyone knows as “Cousin Carl.” 

I was on twitter when Mario Andretti gave him one of the great compliments that anyone could ask for, coming from probably the greatest race car driver “”Winning like a champion is one thing. Losing like a champion is pure class. Carl Edwards, I haven’t seen anyone take second with more class” 

When Andretti compliments you, it is sincere and honest.  He is another driver and legendary role model that took a lot of what Edwards has.  Different styles of racing, but to get a remark like that should mean a lot for fans that really don’t know Carl Edwards.  I would put money on it that Kyle Busch could not have handled himself with the integrity and dignity that Edwards did tonight, and a lot of athletes should take a lesson on the way this guy handled himself, even after finishing second.  I said this on Friday to a lot of my friends, that no matter the outcome of this race, I would still be a Carl Edwards fan and I would give the guys credit, because call it how you want, Carl Edwards had the season that would have won the title any other year, he just had a guy that was a little better this season.  So this is to Carl, Bob Osborne, Pierre Kuettel and the rest of the team, you guys are deserving to be champions, and you are “our champions.”

Remember last November?  Questions being made about Bob Osborne being back on the pit box this season, rumors floating around the team shop that Drew Blickensderfer was wanting the job.  But then came Phoenix International Raceway in November for the Kobalt Tools 500. 

Straight off the truck, the 99 car was the fastest in both practice sessions and qualified on the pole.  Edwards led 93 laps of the race, and won the event by 4.7 seconds over Ryan Newman.  It taught a lot of fans something last year that should be going back on their head notes, don’t count this team out, especially when they are being criticized.  Bob Osborne was on RaceHub last night and talked to Randy Pemberton and sounded confident about the last two races and reminded people that the 99 had finished ahead of the 14 more than they had finished ahead of them.

Osborne is an engineer, and people for years questioned whether or not he could lead this team to a championship.  He and car chief Pierre Kuettel have kept things going this season even when the team was down.  Everytime the media has questioned whether not they were good enough for the title race, they’ve shown they were.  Now with three points seperating them and Tony Stewart’s team with two races to go, the questions are coming in again.  Stewart has the momentum, Edwards has the consistency.  And there is a scenerio that could come into play down these last two races.  As close as the 99 and 14 have been lately, Stewart could finish one position ahead of Edwards in each of the last two events and still the 99 comes out of Homestead as the championship winner.  Edwards has been good at the last two venues in the past, while Stewart’s success at Homestead was early in his career, and he has not finished ahead of the 99 at the 1.5 mile track since Edwards’ first career start at the track.

November has always been good to Carl Edwards.  He did come up short twice for the title, so he has the experience of losing the title in November to Jimmie Johnson and once to Stewart himself in 2005.  You have to take a loss before you can take the win they say, Edwards has.  Edwards, however, has never came into the last two races as the championship leader and that is something that he has to look at.  Also, I don’t think that Stewart has gotten to Edwards head at all.  Carl Edwards is the most cool and collective guy in the garage area and he knew from the get go that there would be some tricks thrown from someone.  His teammate Matt Kenseth had to deal with Kevin Harvick back in 2003 and those games didn’t work.

New pavement, reconfigured race track and a lot of questions are needing to be answered about the Phoenix International Raceway this weekend.  Carl Edwards has had past success at the one mile oval in the desert but with the changes made to the tracks many are wondering what it will bring on.  So what advantage does the 99 car have over the 14 this weekend at Phoenix?  The Nationwide race on Saturday afternoon.

I wouldn’t say that if it were at Texas or Charlotte because it isn’t a huge advantage running laps at those two venues in Nationwide car, however, with the reconfiguration of the layout and banking at Phoenix and new surface on the track it could be a decent advantage to run Saturday afternoon’s event.  First advantage, getting used to the track layout and finding the best line around the track.  Two – tire wear and finding how long a tire will run on this pavement,  three, driver comfort at the track and four is pit road.  Pit road has had changes made to it as well with new pavement on it and new pit boxes.

You can bet that the 99 team will be working very closely with the 60 team on Saturday afternoon to help find the right setup for the cars and get everything set for Sunday.  Because Sunday’s race is much more important than Saturday’s and if they can take something that they learned from the Nationwide race and deploy it to the Sprint Cup Series event on Sunday, it will definitely pay off for them.  I do believe that Phoenix will be the tougher of the two tracks to get the handle on, because if anyone has Homestead figured out it is Carl Edwards and Bob Osborne.

It’s a rare ocassion that a driver feels good emotion for losing a race with six laps to go, however, Carl Edwards had good reasoning on this one. 

It was to his 20-year old teammate who has been through an up and down season and battled criticism for the past three weeks.  Edwards had dominated much of Saturday afternoon’s event at Texas Motor Speedway and appeared to have an untouchable race car throughout most of the day.  But it was on the final restart that Bayne gave his teammate a shove to the front passed the 18 of Denny Hamlin.  Bayne battled with his teammate for a couple of laps and then appeared to be settling into second place until his car came to life and he got a run on the 60 of Edwards.

It seemed that Edwards underestimated his young teammate on the restart, as the No. 16 Ford sponsored Fusion went around Edwards and took home the win.

Trevor Bayne celebrates his first career win in the Nationwide Series after passing Carl Edwards with 6 laps to go.

“I was wrong,” Edwards said. “He drove right by, and then Denny drove by.”

If there was a driver needing a win right now, it was Bayne.  Edwards knew it was getting time for the Tennessee native to pull off a Nationwide win this season.

“I don’t know if you can script a story that I’ve had,” Bayne said. “A lot of ups and downs, but we try to stay right here (in the middle).”

Amazingly it was a year ago that Trevor Bayne made his first career start in Sprint Cup for the Wood Brothers Racing team, and it was in the Spring race that his sickness began to show its head. 

“He’s been through a lot that anybody in his position would consider that a big journey that he’s been on and to be as young as he is and to have so many changes in his life right now, and for him to handle everything as gracefully as he has, I think, says a lot about him,” Edwards said. “So it’s neat to see someone like that have some success.”

Criticize Carl Edwards for being a lot of things, but any guy that can take losing a race like this, is one of a kind in my book.  Edwards has stuck by Trevor Bayne since all the criticism began three weeks ago, and after winning the race on Saturday, the critics can talk some more.  This time about a 20-y