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closeSecond chance pays off for Edwards
Pit miscue gives driver new life at Bristol
JIM UTTER, jutter@charlotteobserver.com
Saturday, Mar. 24, 2007
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Carl Edwards went from a sitting duck to sitting pretty thanks to an assist from NASCAR.
A miscue in the operation of the pit road lights and flag, which serve as signal to drivers whether pit road was open or closed, gave Kyle Busch and Edwards a second chance to pit under caution midway through Saturday’s Busch Series race.
With a second chance and equal tires with the rest of the lead lap cars, Edwards held off a fast-approaching Matt Kenseth by. 0.260 seconds to win the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The win is Edwards’ 10th in the series and first NASCAR victory of any kind since his Busch win at St. Louis last July.
“The cautions were the biggest thing. We just had caution after caution. The car ran really well on the short runs and the long runs,” Edwards said. “To be able to hold off someone as great as Matt Kenseth at a place like this, that’s really special.”
During a caution on Lap 183 of 300, NASCAR communication over the radio signaled pit road was open, however when Busch and Edwards – the top two at the time – first passed the entrance to pit road, there was a delay to changing the light and flag to green signaling pit was open, so both stayed on the track.
Once the light and flag went green, the rest of the field pit for tires and fuel. After reviewing the situation, NASCAR allowed Busch and Edwards to pit without penalty and lined up the field on the restart based on when the caution first came out.
Had NASCAR not made that move, the cars with fresh tires would have soon overtaken the two drivers who did not pit, or those three would have had to pit and restart at the end of the lead lap.
“They could have just as easily had told us we’re just going to have to deal with it,” Edwards said. “I appreciate NASCAR helping us out there.”
Busch appeared to have the best car, but twice got spun out while leading the race and had to battle from the back. He was most displeased at lapped cars that would not yield to lead-lap cars.
“Lapped cars don’t give way to the leaders when they’re already a lap down and going their second lap down. (Mike Wallace) was pathetic today. Absolutely, outrageously stupid,” Busch said.
“He was mad at us because NASCAR gave us a break because they didn’t open up pit road right and when I got up to the front there he was trying to knock in my fender and ride along side me.”
Busch finished third, Ryan Newman was fourth and Clint Bowyer finished fifth.
The race was slowed 12 times by caution covering 103 laps. There were nine lead changes among six drivers.