Is Gritty Charlotte Win What Carl Edwards Needs to Jumpstart 1st Season at JGR?

Carl Edwards, a driving talent of the highest order, moved to Joe Gibbs’ Toyota team with great expectations this season. It was widely believed that he would quickly contend for a Sprint Cup championship.

He finished in the top 10 only once in the season’s first 11 races.

It took fuel strategy to pull off Edwards’ first victory of the season, for Gibbs and in nearly a year, but Edwards punched his ticket to the Chase for the Sprint Cup the best way he and crew chief Darian Grubb knew how: by winning NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Hopefully, all that bad luck we’ve had … I guess I got it negated or equaled out by good luck tonight,” Edwards said in Victory Lane to Fox Sports. “I’ve been stressed. You can ask the people close to me. I’m just so competitive, and I’m not happy with how we’ve performed and the results we’ve had.

“I feel like this is a gift … and I’m going to take advantage of it and enjoy it, and we’ll get better.”

The victory was a bit overshadowed by Juan Pablo Montoya’s breathtaking victory earlier Sunday at the Indianapolis 500, but Edwards’ emergence was significant on its own merits.

“JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) is back, and these Toyotas are great,” said Edwards, 35, who campaigned Fords for Jack Roush from 2004 through 2014, in Victory Lane. “I had the slowest one in the [four-car team], but our crew did it.

“I can’t believe we won this race.”

In 2011, Tony Stewart edged Edwards in the closest Chase in history. Stewart’s crew chief at the time was Grubb, who directs Edwards’ team now. Grubb, recognizing that Edwards’ Toyota lacked the speed to defeat the drivers who dominated the first 90 percent of the race, had Edwards pit late, estimating he could make it to the end.

“That’s what won the race for us,” Edwards said on the Fox telecast. “That’s what [Grubb] does on the box. He takes a mediocre day like that and puts us in a good position.

"When the actual last caution [flag] came out (lap 338), it was right on the lap we were going to pit under green flag to make it to the end," Grubb said in the post-race media conference. "I was really surprised that a lot of people didn't come and pit when we did.

"We were actually planning to do two tires just to make sure we could get enough fuel to finish, but since hardly anybody (else) came we took four, fueled up and were good to go to the end."

Though Edwards started third, he led only four laps before inheriting the lead for the final 21. It took 32 tries to capture the 24th victory of his career.

Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin could not make it to the end on fuel and pitted as the laps expired. Thus did Edwards win, Greg Biffle finish second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. take third.

“I don’t know what to do about fuel-mileage [races],” said Truex, who finished fifth. “I’ve never, ever come out on the right end of them.”

“We’ve [already] got a win, so it doesn’t matter,” Earnhardt said of his gamble. “I just needed the guys in front of me to run out. I like to gamble. We didn’t have the car to beat the (No.) 4 (Harvick), the ‘41’ (Kurt Busch), or the ‘78’ (Truex).”

“We were both saving gas,” Biffle said, referring to him and Edwards. “Coming to two [laps] to go, I started running out, so I had to start backing out.”

Biffle’s performance represented something of an irony since Roush Fenway Racing, where Edwards was formerly his teammate, has struggled for the past two seasons.

“It’s been well documented how bad we’ve been running,” he said in a post-race media conference. “It feels kind of funny. I decided if I finished in the top 10 tonight, I was going to stand on the door top and be all excited and cheer, and I finished second and I’m not happy.

“That was a huge improvement. We haven’t [run well] in probably a year, so I’m super-excited about that.”

The Gibbs entries finished first, fourth (Matt Kenseth), eighth (Hamlin) and 11th (Kyle Busch). Edwards, Kenseth and Hamlin have qualified for the Chase by virtue of each having won one of the season’s 12 races to date. Kyle Busch, who missed the first 11 races due to leg injuries sustained in an Xfinity Series race at Daytona, faces an uphill task since NASCAR requires he reach the top 30 in points and win a race by the end of the regular season, which is 14 races away. It’s possible but difficult.

Edwards remains only 16th in Sprint Cup points, trailing teammates Kenseth (seventh) and Hamlin (15th).

"Up to this point in the year, we have basically just done a good job holding it all together and staying focused," Edwards said in his media conference, "but we've not delivered the results we all planned on. To get this win and to put ourselves in position to be in the Chase, we're able to now take a deep breath and step back and work on the little things we know we need to be a championship-level team.

"I have been trying very hard to pace myself, to be smart and not do stupid things or try too hard, but I'm curious now to see if we go out and just start hauling the mail and winning races left and right. It might have been me putting too much pressure on myself."

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.