NASCAR Capsules: Zero Cup wins for Edwards after nine last year

FORT WORTH, Texas — Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

"I’ve kind of tried to think of it differently," Edwards said. "It’s not that we haven’t had no wins this season, it’s just that we’ve had nine wins over the last two. That sounds a lot better."

That still doesn’t erase that very noticeable zero in 2009.

After winning a series-high nine races last season — "That was an amazing year," Edwards said, almost smiling at the memory — he was considered by many as the preseason favorite this year to unseat three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

Instead, Johnson heads into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, the eighth in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, closing in on unprecedented fourth consecutive championship.

Edwards would just like to win a race and try to build some momentum for next season.

"Everybody was so pumped and voted us to win the championship and everybody was on board, but I knew in the back of my mind that things can go great or they can go bad and no amount of speculation can affect that," Edwards said. "Yeah, it’s frustrating. But I know how cruel this sport can be."

And how good.

When Edwards got to the 1½-mile, high-banked track last November, he already had seven wins. He made it eight when he drove his No. 99 Ford to Victory Lane by a comfortable margin after gambling on fuel to complete the first two-race season sweep in Texas — and become the first three-time winner there. He won again in the finale two weeks later at Homestead to finish 69 points behind Johnson.

Without a wreck at Talladega and an ignition problem at Charlotte in consecutive Chase races, for finishes of 29th and 33rd, Edwards probably would have been able to end Johnson’s title streak last year.

The luck has been no better this year, even though the Roush Fenway team got started with Matt Kenseth being the first driver in 12 years to win the first two races of a season and Edwards made the Chase again.

"We were at the top of our game last year and didn’t manage to make the improvements and didn’t manage to find the next new thing that we needed this year and that left us with a disappointing year," owner Jack Roush said. "It’s just a cycle of things. ... Hopefully next year we’ll be back on top."

After Kenseth’s two victories, Roush didn’t win again until Jamie McMurray won at Talladega last weekend.

Only Johnson (13) and Kyle Busch (12) have more than Edwards’ nine victories over the past two seasons.

Busch is racing in all three of NASCAR’s top series at Texas, and has a chance Sunday to be the first driver to win in all three on the same weekend. He got his Texas trifecta started by winning the truck race Friday night and the Nationwide race Saturday.

With a 184-point lead over Mark Martin, Johnson needs only to average a 10th-place finish over the last three races, or 11th if he leads at least one lap in every race, to clinch the championship. Johnson has an average finish of 3.4 in the seven Chase races so far, finishing top 10 in all of them.

"I’m still trying to race as if we’re behind in points," Johnson said. "I feel if we start focusing on an average position where we need to finish, do some things that are different, we will set ourselves up for a problem. ... If we can go out and outrun the 24 (Gordon) and the 5 (Martin) the next two weeks, we’ll set (clinching the title) into our minds then. Right now, I’m just trying to keep blinders on and stay focused on maximum points."

Johnson was second at Texas in April behind Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, who is the polesitter Sunday. Martin, another Hendrick driver, qualified seventh and Johnson starts 12th.

Gordon’s victory in April broke a 47-race winless drought and gave him his first victory ever at Texas. It is still his only win this season.

Edwards finished 10th in April at Texas and it looked like he might be getting on a roll soon after that when he finished seventh or better in four consecutive races. But he didn’t maintain that momentum, and has only five top-10 finishes in the 17 races since.

Only four Nationwide victories this season have kept Edwards from getting rusty at doing his celebratory backflip.

His worst Sprint Cup finish came three weeks ago in Charlotte, when he was 39th because of a blown engine that put him out of the race with 35 laps to go. He was 14th last week at Talladega.

"I feel like I’m doing sometimes a better job in the race car and we’re not getting the same results, but that’s what makes this sport tough," Edwards said. "The good times are good, the bad times you’ve just got to dig in and work."

Notebook: Kyle Busch’s new crew chief ready for 1st tirade

FORT WORTH — Kyle Busch’s new crew chief knows what’s coming.

Dave Rogers also knows it won’t do any good to worry about being on the receiving end of the demanding driver’s first tirade.

"I’m probably going to take some beatings from him," Rogers said. "We all know that he can be verbal, and I’m probably going to have a give a few back. It’s going to be a good working relationship."

Busch and Rogers make their debut in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Texas. Joe Gibbs Racing announced last week that Steve Addington would be replaced as Busch’s crew chief after last weekend’s event at Talladega.

Addington and Busch, known for berating his crew when he doesn’t like his car or the pit efforts, won 12 times in 68 races since the start of 2008. That included four wins this year, but the duo narrowly missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in part because of 12 finishes outside the top 20.

"I’m disappointed for Steve. I’m humbled," Rogers said. "I’m slightly surprised but not really. Everything changes so fast around here."

Rogers has been with the Gibbs team for years, serving on Tony Stewart’s Sprint Cup series-winning team in 2002. He was in charge of Gibbs’ No. 20 car in the Nationwide Series, winning nine times with four different drivers last year.

It’s the second Sprint Cup spin for Rogers. The first wasn’t good. He was replaced in his first season with Jason Leffler in 2005 when the team went the first half of the year without a top-10.

"I failed at the No. 11 car. There’s no doubt about it," Rogers said. "Certainly I learned a lot through that experience. I would not change it for the world, and I think it will make me a better crew chief for the No. 18 car."

The change from Addington to Rogers came after consecutive top-10s from the 24-year-old driver. Still, Busch seemed to understand the change. Now he’s gearing up for it.

"It’s going to take time to really work into a great relationship," Busch said. "Him learning the cars, me learning him and getting the communication going. When you have good race cars, you have a guy that you’ve talked to, you seem to be able to get a lot accomplished."

TOYOTA TALK

Toyota’s withdrawal from the Formula One circuit will not affect the manufacturer’s commitment to NASCAR, a company executive said Saturday.

Lee White, president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development, said the operations are separate financially.

"It should have no effect whatsoever on our NASCAR program and our NASCAR plan and our NASCAR future," White said.

Toyota said Wednesday it was withdrawing from F1 to cut costs and focus on its core business. The complete withdrawal makes it unlikely Toyota will return if the economy improves.

White said the money saved by withdrawing from F1 will not result in an expansion of the NASCAR program.

"We are not pursuing other teams," White said.

GO, KURT, GO

An Oklahoma man has a vested interest in Kurt Busch winning Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

Michael McGee of Broken Bow, Okla., was named the Dickies American Worker of the Year last month in Las Vegas. He won $50,000 and will take home $1 million if Kurt Busch wins.

The 25-year-old McGee ended up with Kurt Busch by picking him in a random drawing of the 12 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship drivers.

McGee teaches agriculture and owns a 41-acre horse training farm.

DON’T COUNT THE CHICKENS

Jimmie Johnson’s commanding Sprint Cup series lead makes it possible for him to become the first driver in the Chase era to clinch the title before the finale.

Johnson can wrap it up next week in Phoenix, but that’s not the way he’s thinking.

"I feel like if we start focusing on average position where we need to finish, do some things that are different than what the 48 car does, we will set ourselves up for a problem," Johnson said. "I’m certainly not going to do stupid things on the track, take a lot of unneeded risk. But I’ve always been a believer of playing offense."

Johnson enters the Texas race with a 184-point lead over Mark Martin and 192 ahead of Jeff Gordon, the April winner here.

"If we got out and outrun the 24 and the 5 the next two weeks, we’ll let that enter into our minds then," Johnson said.

SPARK PLUGS

Two-time Texas winner Jeff Burton skipped Saturday’s Nationwide Series race after a hard crash during Sprint Cup practice Friday. He said team owner Richard Childress made the decision for precautionary reasons. ... Texas native Bobby Labonte (Corpus Christi) will go for his 200th top-10 Sunday. He would be the 26th driver to reach that mark. ... The antacid TUMS has joined Michael Waltrip Racing as a sponsor of David Reutimann’s No. 00 car. TUMS will be the primary sponsor for five races during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. ... Little Debbie will continue as a Marcos Ambrose sponsor in 2010.

-- Schuyler Dixon

Nationwide

NASCAR trifecta in reach for Kyle Bush at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch keeps extending streaks at Texas in search of a NASCAR first.

Busch won his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series race at the 1½-mile, high-banked track Saturday. The dominating victory came a day after he won his fifth truck race in his last five starts in the series.

He will try to complete an unprecedented trifecta Sunday and become the first driver to win all three of NASCAR’s national series on the same weekend.

"I hope it happens, that would be the greatest thing," Busch said. "The hardest one is the last one."

Busch qualified fifth for Sunday’s race at Texas, where he is 0-for-9 in Sprint Cup races and finished 18th in April.

When Busch climbed out of the car in Victory Lane on Saturday, he said he was "sorry" he won and would make it three in a row. When asked later about what reaction he expected if he did pull it off, he said he was "messing with the fans" with his comment and wasn’t sure.

"People would get tired of buying tickets to the Kyle Busch show, I guess," he said. "That’s two, one more to go. ... If luck is on our side and we play it smart, we could come out of here 3 for 3. That would be pretty special."

After taking the lead on the 11th of 200 laps, when he swung his No. 18 Toyota around polesitter Matt Kenseth in the first turn, Busch went on to lead 179 laps and win by 3.154 seconds over Casey Mears, who was filling in for Jeff Burton in the No. 29 Chevrolet.

This is the 28th time in his career Busch has run all three series the same weekend. This is the seventh time this year and twice he won two races — at California in February and Bristol in August — without being able to get the third. In California, he won the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide races before finishing third in Sprint Cup.

"Maybe we can come up two spots better here," he said.

It was Busch’s eighth Nationwide victory this year, and extended his points lead to 272 over Carl Edwards with two races left. Busch, who has won 29 times in 171 career Nationwide starts, only has to finish 15th next week at Phoenix to clinch his first NASCAR championship in any series.

"Every week, we’re right there, we’re contending," said Busch, who has 11 runner-up finishes to go with his victories. "The 48 (Jimmie Johnson) makes it look easy on Cup side, we make it look easy on the Nationwide side. ... It’s an accomplishment."

NASCAR said after the race that the Busch team faces a potential points penalty for an improperly secured weight that was found on the No. 18 during an initial inspection at the beginning of the race week.

Edwards, who had to start at the back of the field after making adjustments on the car during the impound period, finished ninth.

Jason Leffler got loose in the closing laps and finished third after being passed by Mears. Kenseth was fourth, Brad Keselowski fifth and Kevin Harvick, the only other four-time Nationwide winner at Texas, was sixth.

"I don’t know why I was driving so hard," Leffler said. "I was pulling away from the 29 (Mears), but I wasn’t catching the 18 (Busch). I ran on the apron a little bit and it about took me out of the race."

Busch has won 19 NASCAR races this season, including seven of his 13 truck starts to go with four Sprint Cup victories. He won 21 races last year — eight Sprint, 10 Nationwide and three trucks.

It was the sixth time in 10 Nationwide races at Texas that Busch led the most laps. He has led 657 of 1,200 laps during his four-race winning streak.

Within 11 laps after taking the lead, Busch had already created a nearly 3-second gap over Harvick. His lead was more than 10 seconds soon after green-flag pit stops and before a caution for debris on lap 62.

Harvick led the first lap after the caution by 0.0002 seconds and stayed in front for five laps — including three under another quick caution when Michael McDowell spun in Turn 4 — before Busch passed him on lap 72.

All that kept closing the gap on Busch were seven cautions for 34 laps. On each restart, Busch quickly shot back in front of the field.

-- Stephen Hawkins