AVONDALE, Ariz. – Unlike the three drivers behind him in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings — Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano — Carl Edwards won’t be in a must-win situation in Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix.
But don’t tell him that.
Sure, Edwards is in fifth place in the standings, one shy of the last transfer position, but he’s seven points behind Martin Truex Jr. in fourth, with Sunday’s race the cutoff point for the Championship Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
And if any of the three drivers below Edwards happens to win on Sunday and joins Jeff Gordon as an automatic qualifier for Homestead, the number of spots available on points will shrink from three to two.
That’s why Edwards is approaching the race at PIR much as Keselowski, Busch and Logano are.
“We feel like, if you look at the scenarios, we’ve really got to perform here,” Edwards said after posting the fourth-fastest speed in Friday’s opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice session. “We have to win this race – that’s our mission.
“We have to qualify well, we have to make good decisions and, really, we have to have some speed. We’re approaching this race as a must-win race. That’s the only way to guarantee our spot. If one of the guys behind us leap-frogs us and wins, it’s going to be a tall order to advance, so we just have to give it all we’ve got.”
Edwards qualified fourth for Sunday’s race.
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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