NASCAR Cup Series

Talladega pairings have Ford flavor

Published Oct. 21, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Is the “One Ford” vision filtering down to the blue oval’s race teams?

With the title on the line and two Ford drivers — Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth — in contention for the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, the game plan for Team Roush has the Nos. 6 and 17 pairing as well as the Nos. 16 and 99.

Initially, Edwards was going to partner up with Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne. But the 21-year-old’s result of 40th at Talladega in the spring might have changed that game plan.

Kenseth, who won last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is paired with Daytona’s summer winner David Ragan. Ragan’s average finish of 17th at Talladega is the best among the RFR drivers.

In nine starts on the 2.66-mile track, Ragan has two top-fives and three top-10 finishes. Greg Biffle and Edwards have two top-five finishes between them.

Edwards says there was no discussion of team orders when he called in to the weekly meeting on Tuesday — but perhaps a smaller, clandestine pow-wow occurred.

“I did hear that there was a meeting where everybody kind of spit on their hands, shook and agreed to what we were going to do for one another, but I wasn’t given the details of that meeting,” Edwards said.

“I just heard that it maybe happened. I don’t think there was anything different this week than any other week.

“When I asked Greg what he wanted to do and how we wanted to work together, that is something we have done over the last few races, and it wasn’t like someone told him, 'This is what you have to do.'

"We agreed on what would be the best for us to do, and I think we made that decision independently and without someone telling us.”

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