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It is hard to believe that with three races left in the 2009 season Carl Edwards is winless. After winning a series-high nine races in 2008, Edwards is still searching for a win.
It was thought that there was no better place than Texas for Edwards to finally breakthrough.
On Friday, the weather was perfect and Edwards hit the track for first practice. They were fast off the truck. He ran a total of seven laps with his fastest lap being his seventh at 28.6 seconds. That time put him fifth on the speed charts.
Edwards had a late qualifying draw but was unable to earn the pole but would start sixth after a lap of 28.3 seconds.
On Saturday, two early morning practices would give teams the chance to work on race setup for Sunday. During the first practice, Edwards ran 20 laps, but his fastest lap was his first one.
During the final practice, Edwards found the speed he was struggling to find during the first practice. He finished practice second on the charts. After running a total of 34 laps his fastest lap was his first but the team was still working on the balance of the car.
Heading into Sunday’s race he needed to keep his car up front and he needed to eliminate his mistakes on pit road. Mishaps on pit road cost him the win in April.
Edwards started off the race struggling to find grip on the race track. Even though his car was much better on the short run, after green flag stops the No. 99 was still struggling with a loose race car.
Edwards though was running in the top 10 and was making ground on then leader Kyle Busch.
During the green flag stops Edwards would lose positions on pit road but the car was fast and he was able to run well within the top 10.
Edwards stopped on pit road midway through the race under caution and lost a few positions. He continued to struggle with lack of grip even with the changing track conditions.
Once again for this team they could not beat the bad luck. Juan Pablo Montoya got loose and took Edwards with him in a collision. Edwards suffered the most damage and was out of the race before the restart on lap 185.
He finished 39th and dropped to 11th in the standings.
This was Edwards' last real opportunity to win a race. He has always run well at Texas so this team was looking to have a strong finish, if not win the thing.
In recent weeks Edwards’ team has been able to really work on the handling of the race car. On Sunday they finally had the speed they struggled to find all year long.
Now they have to hope he can at least get a win at Homestead, where he won in 2008.
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