Pole shows the signs of motivation for 99 team

Carl Edwards is being pushed the pit road by car chief Pierre Kuettel on Saturday afternoon in practice

Certainly the media has blown one question of proportion to Carl Edwards since that November night when Carl Edwards lost the title to a tie to Tony Stewart.  A question on where could you have gotten that one little point that would have gotten the championship?

“I think I’ve been asked that one-point question 4,000 times,” Edwards said. “But we didn’t let that disappointment slow us down. It gave us real motivation.

“So it is nice to come here and show everyone that it isn’t just talk. Everybody at Roush went back to work and kept their heads down.”

There is one key word in Carl Edwards’ remarks “motivation.”  A word that you did not hear Denny Hamlin speak of when he was knocked down by the defeat of the 2010 series championship to Jimmie Johnson.  Instead of letting the tie for the championship get to Carl Edwards and his team, it has given him motivation to come back in 2012 and be better than he was last year.  While I can probably go back and name a couple of places that Carl Edwards could have gotten that one little point that kept him from winning the title last season, he has moved on and used everything to pull forward and go for more in 12′.

Winning the pole for the Daytona 500 came as a surprise for Edwards, who was looking for his teammate to be faster than he was, showed on Sunday that when you don’t let things bring you down, it is better to use it as a pull for motivation to do better.  It is hard to do better than Carl Edwards did last season, as he led most of the season, scored the most top-fives, and top-tens, won the Coors Light Pole Award last season and had a better average finish than any driver did in the Chase since it was put in place in 2004.

Bob Osborne, who is out this weekend because of the passing away of his father, most certainly has gotten more fire from losing the championship.  As Edwards even said during the banquet back in December he was back at the shop working on things to make them even better this season.  Crew Chiefs are leaders and provide a great deal of confidence towards the drivers, and of all the driver and crew chief pairings besides the pairing of Johnson and Knaus, Edwards and Osborne have worked together as long as anyone.  I have read comments from fans that have debated the abilities of Osborne since 2004, and many have even said he was a terrible pick for Edwards.  I have stood behind Osborne, and even debated back when Jack Roush made the call in 2006 to put Bob Osborne with Jamie McMurray and put an unproven guy on the pit box of the 99.

Since Osborne has returned he’s proven to be a great leader and has put together a great team that is certainly capable of being a title contender this season, and with their crew chief away for the weekend, the team’s performance showed great determination by putting together the fastest car in the garage in Daytona.  It’s just the start of that motivation kicker of losing the title 2011.