Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Edwards Rolls a 'seven' in Las Vegas
Monday, March 3rd, 2008

The Toyota of Kyle Busch led the opening laps of the Cup race in Las Vegas, but it was the strong running Ford of Carl Edwards that pulled into the winner's circle by day's end.

For the second week in a row, and ninth in a short career, Edwards put the hammer down on his Office Depot Ford Fusion and earned his latest win for Roush-Fenway Motorsports.

The action in this one really heated up when Edwards (at 52 laps to go) was forced to the back of the pack for a pit road violation involving a runaway tire. The hard driving pilot roared back from 17th to lead after taking the top spot from teammate Matt Kenseth.

A late race restart found Edwards out front, Dale Earnhardt Jr second, followed by Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. Dale Jr appeared to slow slightly, the result of not shifting soon enough, which prompted Kenseth to the outside and Gordon to the low side for the double pass.

When they finished the pass, they touched slightly sending both in a spin. The big difference was Kenseth's ability to drive away with just a couple of flats (finishing 20th). Gordon on the other hand, smacked the inside wall opening where the cars can exit the racing surface…no safe walls and a bad angle hit found the four-time champ hitting very hard, lifting the rear wheels of the car off the ground.

Shaken, but OK, Gordon emerged from the care center with comments concerning his not wanting to be on the bottom of the track as 'his car was not working down there'. The latest results is his second DNF, sending him down eight spots to 22nd in the big picture.

His teammate (Jimmie Johnson) and reigning Cup champion didn't have much better results on the day struggling with an ill-handling Lowe's Chevy. A 29th place finish sends him down eight spots to 14th. Is the Hendrick COT car domination over?

Blown tires ended several top runners successful runs with a bang. Tony Stewart had a right front tire let go, gingerly exited the race car a bit dazed and out of the show. The same ugly fate befell Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch, winding up deep in the final rundown.

Is there a problem with the hardness of the tires, or is it the setup on the car in some cases being too radical?

Other notables included Kyle Busch's fall from grace, despite a pole and good start, the Toyota driver wound up 11th, yet remains second to Edwards by only 21 points.

Capping off the top five finishers were the cars of Dale Jr, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

As a result, Dale Jr moved up 13 spots in points to sit 10th while Stewart and Kurt Busch dropped eight places to 11th and 12th respectively.

Earlier in the weekend's lineup, the Nationwide race turned out to be a real barn burner in the final laps.

Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Mark Martin and Greg Biffle all had visions of grandeur basking in victory lane. With just a handful of laps remaining, Martin accidentally got into Edwards which took out Martin's teammate Kesolowski in the process.

Martin was able to hold off Biffle and the rest of the pack to claim his record breaking 48th trophy and first series win in nearly three years.

Rounding out the rest of the top five finishers included Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Dave Stremme.

Edwards appreciated Martin apologizing in victory lane before celebrating, knowing all the while, the circumstance was very un-Mark-like.

The reigning series champion still came out on the lead lap, hitting the books with a 14th place finish, good enough for fourth in the standings, yet first among the 'full-timers'.

Tony Stewart ran strong but faded late. His day ended by sliding up into David Reutimann taking the two Toyotas out. Stewart did not return yet Reutimann patched up the car to wind up 25th. Stewart felt that he got in a wreck implying the other car crowded him and they crashed. Same ole Tony. He screws up…the other guy is to blame. Someone does take him out as a legitimate payback, the other guy is to blame…there's a theme here. I think those anger management sessions have a shelf life…time for renewal.

From Rumorville
No. 4 Back? Could there be life after a brief death from the Morgan-McClure headquarters in Abbingdon, VA? Reports indicate McClure has been wooing a few potential clients with no less than six COT cars sitting at the Virginia race shop. Stay tuned.

If NASCAR does not reverse their penalties against Robbie Gordon in regards to the discrepancy at Daytona, the fiery owner/driver is talking seriously about doing the Indy500/Coke 600 double duty day. That'll spice up the weekend.

Did you know?
What forms of racing this week's winner Carl Edwards came from? If you said a lot of dirt track racing, you'd be correct. The young man from Missouri won races in Mini-Sprints, IMCA open wheel Modifieds, the Baby Grands on pavement, then moved into Roush Busch and truck deals before landing a full-time Cup ride with the 'cat in the hat'. The rest, as they say, is history.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will have the results from NASCAR in Atlanta, along with more racing news from around the globe. Formula One and IRL starts are right around the corner.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ