NASCAR Cup Series

Edwards hitting his stride in Chase

Published Oct. 3, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Just think of him as the silent assassin.

On Friday, Carl Edwards barely had a voice. While Edwards felt fine, he answered in whispers, a stark contrast to his usual resonant tone.

But when it came time to deliver on Sunday, Edwards was hardly at a loss for words.

After Edwards was penalized for speeding at Dover International Speedway, he fought back from 24th, finished third and moved into a tie with first-place Kevin Harvick in the points standings.

Edwards then traded barbs with second-place finisher Jimmie Johnson.

Here’s the pair trash talking after blunders at Dover cost both drivers the win.

Johnson: "If I was Carl, I wouldn’t get over that mistake. I maybe wouldn’t show up next week."

Edwards: "But you’re not me."

Johnson: "No, no."

Edwards: "It is tough. It’s frustrating. I think if I were Jimmie, I would be so frustrated that I gave up that win. He had otherwise a perfect day. It would probably bother me all week if I were Jimmie."

Johnson had a bothersome week to begin with. Some pundits pointed to his heated exchange with crew chief Chad Knaus at New Hampshire Motor Speedway while others called Johnson’s hope for a championship six-pack dead after the No. 48 team dropped to 10th in the points standings following his 18th-place finish.

And throughout Johnson’s uncharacteristicly inconsistent season, Edwards has quietly gotten the job done, particularly in the Chase. Edwards is the only Chaser with three top-10 finishes in the first three races -- fourth, eighth and third. In the last six races his worst finish was ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway. While both Edwards and Johnson have sole wins in 2011, the No. 99 Ford has a slightly better average finish of 10.4 compared to 10.6 for the No. 48 Chevrolet.

Despite Johnson moving up to fifth in the points standings -- he’s 13 points behind Edwards and Harvick -- there’s not a Chase contender that would count the five-time champion out, including Edwards.

“It’s important to beat them every week, I think,” Edwards said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that of all the cars that you want to finish in front of, you want to finish in front of those guys the most because the last five years they’ve been the guys to beat at the end.”

Sure, Johnson spun his wheels on a restart that allowed Kurt Busch to pass him for the lead and inevitably the win. And Edwards lost valuable track position after he was penalized for speeding on pit road.

Still, Edwards believes both he and Johnson were fortunate on Sunday. He feels the key to the championship will not come from a perfect run but by minimizing the mistakes and capitalizing on the mistakes of others.

“We finished up front,” Edwards said. “We didn’t cost ourselves a ton of points, but we’re race-car drivers. We’re gonna think about what we did wrong and try not to do it again, but it seems like as soon as you’ve got everything figured out, you start forgetting things you remembered a long time ago and start making the same mistakes over again. It’s very difficult.

“That’s how racing is but, to me, the neatest part is that Bob (crew chief Osborne) and my guys made sure and told me they were behind me and were excited to go to Kansas.”

Edwards will have the home advantage at this weekend's race at Kansas Speedway, which is two hours west of where he lives in Columbia, Mo. While Johnson has a win on the 1.5-mile track and an average finish of 9.1 at Kansas, Edwards has averaged 5.75 in his last four starts there. Given Roush Fenway Racing’s success on intermediate tracks, Edwards will be a threat at those four remaining racetracks -- Kansas, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway -- where he has five of 19 career wins.

But with the points race as close as it is, Edwards realizes he must put Sunday behind him and concentrate on the final seven Chase races.

“It’s real easy to say if we didn’t make that mistake we would have won. I definitely took myself out of a position to fight for the win by doing that, so that’s something that’s painful," he said. "I’m gonna think about it. I’m gonna think about it all the way home. I’ll lay in bed and my wife is gonna yell at me and tell me to get over it and that’s just how it goes.”