Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Edwards Wins Texas Two Step
Monday, April 7th, 2008

Several drivers led the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Texas on Sunday afternoon, but it was Carl Edwards leading the most laps on the day, bringing home his third win on the year.

The overall race was a bit of a snoozer until the closing stages found Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch hunting down, or at least trying to catch a very fast Edwards Roush-Fenway Ford Fusion over the final laps. They couldn't do it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr started on the pole, but faded by day's end to 12th, still trying to get a better handle on his car, which was a popular problem with many of the drivers.

Among those were Jeff Gordon who never really got a grip on dialing in his car as it quickly dropped from mid-pack at the start to dead last, claiming they just have been junk since unloading the car off the truck. Long before the half, Gordon smacked the fence with the ill-handling Chevy, throwing in the towel, declaring it a test day.

The latest finish has dropped the four-time champ five spots to 14th, some 282 points behind leader Jeff Burton who finished sixth. Edwards latest win elevated him four spots to tenth in the big picture.

Other notables included Mark Martin (8th), David Regan (13th) and David Gilliland (15th).

The Nationwide Series races on Saturday found Kyle Busch and his Toyota spanking the field into submission to claim his second win of the year. He now sits fifth in the standings and it is still undecided if he will compete in every race. Clint Bowyer leads Carl Edwards and David Reutimann in the big picture.

Jeff Burton, Bowyer, Bobby Labonte and Jamie McMurray capped off the top five finishers.

Open Wheel News
Felipe Massa drove away with the Formula One win in Bahrain with relative ease, his teammate Kimi Raikkonen the only driver within sight at the checkers. Polesitter Robert Kubica wound up a very credible third with last year standouts Fernando Alonso and young Lewis Hamilton a disappointing 10th and 13th respectively.
Raikkonen now leads Nick Heidfeld and Hamilton in the overall standings.

Closer to home, the Indy Racing League held their second race of the year, this one a street course in St. Petersburg, FL. As expected, the newly arrived Champ car drivers would fair much better then the first race on an oval.

By the checkers, seven of the top ten finishers were ex-Champers including a very impressive 19-year-old Graham Rahal in his very first IRL race taking the win, despite an early spin and rainy conditions. Others in the top three included Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan.

From Rumorville
Lots of grumbles out of the Petty camp this week, and they're not good. First came the announcement from General Mills, or more specifically Cheerios is leaving the building after this season. Then, strong implications that Bobby Labonte will follow over to the fourth team at Childress are running rampant.

If that wasn't enough headaches, word comes down that Kyle Petty did not make the decision to step down this past week, rather V.P. of Operations Robbie Loomis. Petty declaring something along the lines that he is around to race and if Team Petty doesn't want him, going elsewhere is not out of the question.

Good luck with that Kyle...a 48-year-old driver with eight career wins over a 30 year period and the last win earned in 1995. Not exactly what a potential owner is looking for, eh?

Did you know?
In the 16 years of competing in NASCAR Cup racing, Jeff Gordon has only finished 43rd one other time and that was at Texas in 1999. Between never winning at this track and the recent finishes, I'd say this is one place Gordon would like to see off the schedule.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the action from NASCAR in Phoenix and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ