Carl Edwards wasn’t the class of the field but led when it mattered as he won NASCAR’s longest race Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Edwards led the final 21 laps of the 400 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Coca-Cola 600 as his Joe Gibbs Racing team elected to stretch out his fuel mileage for 61 laps. The move paid off as Edwards was able to stay out as others pitted and he scored the 24th win of his career and his first at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) is back and these Toyotas are great,” Edwards said. “I was the slowest of the group tonight and I just had the best guys on the pit box here and did a great job.”
Most of the race belonged to Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch. Truex, who had only led 9 laps at Charlotte in his entire career, led a race high 131 laps and Busch 118 laps, but it was the fuel mileage game that came into play in the closing stages and it was a game Edwards and crew chief Darian Grubb played better than anyone else.MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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