Edwards gets 4th win
LONG POND, Pa. — When it came to crunch time, Carl Edwards had a dominating car.
But it was good fortune that put him in position to take advantage of it Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
"Luck went our way today," Edwards said after winning his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season and moving from fifth to third in the points.
But, just past the middle of the 200-lap race, it certainly didn't look like it was his day.
Rain was falling. The cars were parked on pit road with Edwards in 22nd place, and the driver and crew chief Bob Osborne were arguing heatedly on top of the team's pit box.
Edwards and several other race leaders had pitted minutes after rain began falling on lap 127 of the 200-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday at Pocono Raceway. Nineteen other drivers, taking a gamble on the possibility of a rain-shortened race, had stayed on track.
"The argument came from when it started raining real hard, then we were trying to blame one another for the idea of coming (onto pit road)," Edward said. "Bob said it was my idea and I really felt like it was his idea. I had to leave the pit box because I was worried Bob was going to, like, punch me in the neck or something.
"I had to walk away. But, personally, I feel like we have a good relationship. We can be perfectly honest with one another and that's really valuable."
Osborne said it was just the way he and Edwards work things out.
"It's not out of the ordinary for us to argue," he said. "We get mad at each other. We walk away and then we walk back together and calmer heads prevail and we have a discussion. ... Nine-nine percent of the time it works out for us."
It all worked out fine this time, with the race resuming after a 41-minute red flag and Edwards and Osborne winning the gamble — whoever's idea it was.
Edwards was able to stretch his last tank of fuel to earn his second Pocono victory and the 11th of his Cup career.
"I was really nervous that we made the wrong call there," Edwards said after doing his traditional victory backflip off his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. "Bob's the smartest guy in the world. We were really arguing. We made light of it, but we thought we made the wrong call."
The race started in sunshine and it appeared Mark Martin, who took the lead from pole-winner Jimmie Johnson at the start and took control would be the driver to beat all day. But Martin had problems on two pit stops that put him back into the pack and then dark clouds began moving in, changing some strategies.
Edwards and several other leaders ducked onto pit road shortly after the rain began falling. Others, led by June Pocono winner Kasey Kahne and Martin, who led a race-high 55 laps, stayed out to gain track position, waiting to see if the rain might end the race prematurely.
Four laps later, the red flag came out.
"We were going for the win," Kahne said. "If it keeps raining, we win. It didn't and we got seventh."
