3 keys to Carl Edwards' dominating victory at Bristol Motor Speedway
The backflip is back, which is about the only good news Joe Gibbs Racing got on Sunday.
JGR’s Carl Edwards prevailed in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, which not surprisingly was a wild affair, with several top contenders encountering problems that knocked them out of contention.
Kyle Busch, winner of the prior two races, and his JGR teammates Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin were all felled by right-front tire failures -- seven among the three drivers -- that eliminated them from any hope of victory.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car wouldn’t go at the start of the race, dropping him two laps off the lead, while his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson had to make an unscheduled pit stop and then got caught in a wreck, and couldn’t get back on the lead lap.
Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano both made unscheduled pit stops in their Penske Fords. And countless drivers banged fenders and suffered sheetmetal damage in the 15 caution-flag periods during the race.
It was a Bristol short-track, which means the racing was tough and physical, with plenty of frustration to go around
It was that kind of afternoon, at the high-banked, high-speed Tennessee oval.
At the end of 500 long, hard laps, Edwards was the last man standing, taking the checkered flag over Earnhardt, who made a great recovery. Kurt Busch was third, followed by Chase Elliott and Trevor Bayne.
“Man, there were so many different things happening out there. Different guys were fast at different times,” said Edwards. “… Now we’re in the Chase We can go have some fun. Just so cool, man. Awesome to be here.”
Here’s how Edwards won for the first time since Darlington last year and the 26th time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career:
3. TOYOTA POWER -- Frankly, from the first practice on Friday, the Toyotas as a group were faster than the Chevrolets and Fords. And they stayed that way throughout the entire weekend. Joe Gibbs Racing qualified in four of the top five spots, and Toyotas led all three practices as well.
Some of the Fords and Chevys were good, but the JGR armada had the field covered .
2. TIRE MANAGEMENT -- With all the problems his teammates had with tires, it’s frankly amazing that Edwards was able to keep the right-front tire on his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. But he did, and that’s why he won and his teammates didn’t.
The JGR Toyotas were all fast, so it isn’t a surprise one of them won. Edwards, after all, qualified on the pole for the race. But he drove conservatively enough to not have any problems, unlike his teammate..
“There was some concern,” about tires, Edwards said, “but for some reason, our car didn’t have any of those issues.”
1. RESTARTS -- With 52 laps to go, Edwards restarted ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Elliott. On old tires, Edwards made a perfect restart to take the lead when the pressure was on.
After another caution, Edwards led the field to the green with 35 laps to go. Elliott went to second place, but by that time, the JGR Toyota was out in front and headed to victory.
Then, with 15 laps to go, Harvick bounced off the wall and hit Michael Annett, setting up yet another restart with 10 laps left. But another crash followed, which meant another opportunity for Edwards to slip when the track went green with five laps to go.
Edwards was perfect again on the final green-flag run and sealed the deal and win his first race of the year.
