CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Carl Edwards has managed to stay under the radar through the first three Chase for the championship races. That should change for him this weekend when he heads to Kansas Speedway - the closest thing to a hometown track for the Missouri native.

Edwards is expecting a ton of friends and family to make the two-hour trip from Columbia, Mo., to Kansas for Sunday's race. He went home earlier this week to do as much catching up as he can in an effort to free his schedule at the track and allow him to concentrate on racing.

It's a little surreal for the 26-year-old Edwards, who was scraping by just a few years ago as a substitute teacher while trying to pursue a racing career.

"It's crazy, so many awesome things have happened," Edwards said. "Winning a couple of races, being in the Chase, going for this championship - all of that is just a dream come true and it's really neat to be able to come back home to Missouri and hang out with my friends.

"I guess it reminds me of what things were like just a few years ago and how grateful I am to be in this position."

Edwards is the surprise of the Chase for the championship, a driver few expected to make the 10-race title hunt. But he worked his way in by winning two races this year - his first full season of Cup racing - and heads into Kansas sixth in the standings and only 100 points out of the lead.

It's a far cry from where he was just three or so years ago, when Edwards resorted to placing a personal ad in a trade magazine in hopes of landing a job.

He got picked up by Roush Racing and put in the truck series, where he probably still would be if Jeff Burton had not vacated his Cup seat late last year. With no driver to replace him, Roush surprisingly gave the job to Edwards, who finished 10th in his Cup debut.

Edwards drove the final 13 races of last season, getting acclimated to a Cup car and the No. 99 crew. They opened this year hoping to be competitive, and exceeded their goals by winning at Atlanta in the fourth race of the season.

Edwards celebrated by doing his trademark back flip off his window ledge and became an instant star.

A victory at Pocono in June made the Chase a real possibility for Edwards, who gave Roush Racing five of the 10 spots in the Chase when he qualified.

"My performance this year was not at all what we expected - it's what we hoped for," Edwards said. "After that first win at Atlanta everything kind of changed. It went from, 'Wow, we would just be super happy to run in the top five,' to 'Man, winning felt awfully good. We'd like to do it again every week.'

"So our perspective has changed and our expectations have changed. We hoped for this and now we've kind of raised the bar for ourselves."

But Edwards still is considered a long shot to win the title and has done little to change that through the first three Chase races. He was a sub-par 19th in the Chase opener at New Hampshire, then bounced back with an uneventful ninth place the next week at Dover.

Edwards was most surprising last week in Talladega, capitalizing when other Chase drivers were caught in accidents by quietly sneaking away with a fifth-place finish. It pushed him up two spots in the standings and gave him confidence heading into Kansas.

Crew chief Bob Osborne believes Edwards still can take off in the Chase and make a run at the title because he's been patient through the first three rounds.

"For the little experience that he has, he doesn't put the car in a situation where he's going to have a bad outcome," Osborne said. "He does do it occasionally, but with a little bit of prodding and reminding him about the bigger picture and how easy it is to get in an accident, he keeps his nose clean and stays out of trouble."

If Edwards is to make up any ground this week in the Chase, he'll need bad races from points leader Tony Stewart and second-place Ryan Newman.

Stewart has a four-point lead over Newman and both drivers have been successful at Kansas. Stewart never has finished lower than 14th in his four Kansas starts, while Newman has one victory and a pair of second places.

So Edwards knows he needs to strike soon.

"Ryan and Tony, and especially Tony, has been awesome and excelled at every type of race track on the schedule through the second half of the season," Edwards said. "I look at our team as a team that can do that.

"I think that making it through these first few races, I can only speak for myself, but I feel like making it through New Hampshire, Dover and Talladega and only being 100 points behind the leader is a home run for me."