HAMPTON, Ga. — Carl Edwards had no idea why all that smoke was pouring from the back of his race car. He just knew it had nothing to do with the lid on his oil tank.
That was right where it’s supposed to be.
At the end of a difficult week, Edwards made a strong bid for his third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup victory Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was out front when something broke in the transmission with 51 laps to go, clearing the way for Kyle Busch to win the Kobalt Tools 500.
Even though Busch led more than half the race, the winner deferred to Edwards as having the best car on the track. Without the mechanical failure, he likely would have been in Victory Lane for the third week in a row.
“Whatever he’s got, it’s scaring us,” Busch said. “Whether it’s the car or the way he’s driving, we’ve go to figure it out.”
There was plenty of speculation that Roush Fenway Racing used shady methods to win the last two races after the No. 99 car failed inspection at Las Vegas a week ago. The lid on the oil tank was missing, which may have given the car an aerodynamic advantage.
Team owner Jack Roush insisted there was nothing intentional about the violation, but NASCAR docked the team 100 points and suspended crew chief Bob Osborne for six weeks.
Even with a replacement crew chief, Edwards was out front again until his engine failed. He was one of only two cars not running at the end, leaving him next-to-last in the 43-car field.
“I don’t what happened, but I know the oil tank lid was on,” Edwards said. “I just appreciate the fans for sticking with us this week. It’s been a long week with a lot of stuff said, but I think we showed them here today, other than something coming apart in the engine. I believe we had the car that was the class of the field.”
Robbie Reiser, longtime crew chief for Matt Kenseth and now the general manager of Roush Fenway Racing, took over the lead role in the pits with Osborne back home in North Carolina.
The new pairing went smoothly, except for some problems keeping the names straight.
“Robbie was all right, except he keeps calling me Matt,” Edwards quipped. “I called him Bob and he said he didn’t like that, so he quit. But they did a great job. We’ve got a lot of depth in the organization, and I think it showed today by being able to go out there and run up front.”
Despite his two wins, Edwards has got some work to do in the points race. He picked up only 42 points in Atlanta and is 17th in the standings, 232 behind the early leader Busch.
“I’m not worried a bit about the points,” Edwards insisted. “We’re going out there to haul (butt) every week and let the points take care of themselves.”
OPEN-WHEEL UPDATE: Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. were the last two winners of the Indianapolis 500.
The former open-wheel stars are a long way from winning anything in a stock car.
Franchitti, who won both the 500 and the IndyCar series championship last year, is off to a slow start in Sprint Cup, struggling to a 33rd-place finish Sunday. He was four laps behind winner Kyle Busch and finds himself 38th in the standings through four races, already a staggering 401 points behind overall leader Busch.
Hornish, who won the Indy 500 in 2006 with a memorable pass of Marco Andretti on the final straightaway, isn’t doing much better in the bigger, bulkier cars. He was 25th at Atlanta, two laps behind the winner, and is 36th in the point standings.
“It’s definitely a learning experience,” said Hornish, who drives for Roger Penske. “Each time we go to one of these races and get to run the full thing, I’ve got a better idea of what I need out of the car the next time we come back. We were pretty much loose all day.”
Franchitti is in the same predicament, trying to get as much track time as possible without getting in anyone’s way.
“It was important to finish,” he said. “It’s like that every week for us: a big learning experience.”
With everyone complaining about the handling of the Goodyear tires, even those who ran up front, Hornish and Franchitti were mainly concerned with making sure they were around to take the checkered flag.
“I cannot believe how loose the cars were all day,” said Franchitti, who landed a Sprint Cup ride with Chip Ganassi’s team after his success in open-wheelers. “We were just hanging on. We hit the wall a couple of times.”
Juan Pablo Montoya’s strong rookie season opened the door for a number of former open-wheel stars to make the switch to Cup cars this year. But they’re all back markers at this point.
Patrick Carpentier is 44th in the standings. Jacques Villeneuve, a former Indy 500 and Formula One champion, lost his ride with Bill Davis Racing after failing to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500.
“We want to run better, more competitive,” Carpentier said. “I want to mix it with these guys a little bit more.”
Another crossover from open-wheelers, second-year Cup driver A.J. Allmendinger, was pulled from the No. 84 car by the Red Bull team after failing to qualify for the first three races of the year.
Veteran Cup driver Mike Skinner took over for Allmendinger, got the car in the Atlanta field and finished 27th. The other Red Bull driver, Brian Vickers, was ninth and one of just 12 drivers to finish on the lead lap.
SADLER’S TOUGH DAY: On a day when everyone felt as if they were driving on ice, Elliott Sadler struggled more than anyone.
His No. 19 Dodge had handling problems the entire day, spinning once and tapping the wall another time before he finally crashed out on lap 262.
“We struggled from the minute we unloaded here on Friday,” Sadler said. “Once the race started, it quickly became apparent we were going to be in for a long day. We tried air pressure, track bar and shock adjustments throughout the race, but I just couldn’t get the rear grip I needed.”
On lap 221, Sadler spun in turn 2 but managed to stay away from the wall. Eleven laps later, he actually got into the concrete but kept going. Finally, he spun and hit the wall hard to finish off his ill-handling machine. He finished last and dropped to 20th in the season standings.
“It felt like we were about to wreck almost every lap,” Sadler said. “All we can do is go back to the shop and fix this car, go over our notes, talk to our teammates and try to figure out how we can be better at the mile-and-a-half tracks.”
LUG NUTS: Bill Elliott failed to qualify for the Kobalt Tools 500, but his son had a better weekend. Twelve-year-old Chase Elliott clinched his first significant racing title Saturday by winning the Young Guns division at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Winter Flurry. His dad served as crew chief. … Kyle Busch became the first driver to win both a Cup and a Craftsman Truck Series race on the same weekend. … Busch had never finished higher than 12th in an Atlanta Cup race before his victory Sunday.
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