Edwards Flips at Texas in Roush Hat Trick
Written by John Davison · November 6, 2005
Carl Edwards took the lead from senior Roushketeer Mark Martin with a lap and a half to run, went on to win his second race in a row and fourth of the season in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Edwards’ win leaves him 77 points behind Tony Stewart in the Chase for the Championship. Before the race, Edwards made sure to thank his mother, and again after the race, hugging her at the Start/Finish line after executing one of his celebratory back flips.
The Dickies 500 might as well have been a Matt Kenseth benefit for the first third of the race.He led 97 of the first 110 laps of the mile and a half track, fellow Roush driver Greg Biffle being the only other driver to lead at all before
Carl Edwards had the biggest gain in the first laps of the race, moving from 30th at the start to sixth by lap 112. Tony Stewart started sixteenth and marched right to Kenseth’s rear bumper before settling back about three-quarters of a second behind the leader in cruise mode. The first third of the race was interrupted by a pair of cautions, one for debris on the track and the second for a spin by Greg Biffle who suffered a pair of loose wheels, dropping him a lap down with stops to replace the vibrating wheels.
Green flag pit stops began with Dale Earnhardt Jr pitting on lap 142. Kenseth finally pitted, giving Tony Stewart the lead for one lap and the bonus points for leading. Jimmie Johnson stayed out late in the cycle and also earned points for leading before his stop. When all the cars had cycled in and out of the pits, Kenseth once again led Stewart then Casey Mears edged ahead of Stewart and started to hunt down Kenseth.
It didn’t take Mears long to knock Kenseth back to second, passing him easily on lap 165 and immediately opening a lead of 0.387 sec at Start/Finish the next time by. Not long after, Edwards dropped Stewart to third, followed by Mark Martin, whose No. 6 Ford seemed to have overcome early handling problems, moving around Stewart.
More debris, this time in Turn Two, brought out the third caution of the race on lap 184, allowing Kyle Petty around the pack with the ‘Lucky Dog’ pass back to the lead lap.After pit stops by all the leaders, Mark Martin beat fellow Roushketeer Kenseth out of the pits to take the lead. The Fords were followed to the green by Casey Mears’ Dodge, then another Roush car at the hands of Carl Edwards in fourth with Tony Stewart handling the first Chevy, in fifth at the restart. Mears’ car slipped on the restart and he dropped back to fifth as Edwards moved around Kenseth into second. Kenseth reported on his radio that the car’s battery seemed to have failed so he switched to the second battery.
After Martin led 13 laps, Edwards got around him on the back straight to lead as Martin reported that his car continued to tighten up as the run progressed. Mears moved around first Martin and on lap 240, Edwards, to take the race lead. After only a pair of laps in the lead, Ryan Newman’s car got under Mears’ rear spoiler and Mears almost spun, dropping back to third with Edwards retaking the lead. Just a lap later, Newman spun down the front straight, bringing out the fourth yellow flag of the race and initiating a new series of pit stops.
With 84 laps to run, the green flag flew again and Brian Vickers wasted no time in moving around Casey Mears into second place behind Martin. Kenseth has already locked up the extra points for leading the most laps in the race, in spite of running back in seventh place.
Vickers swept high around Martin off Turn Two on lap 262 to take the lead with Carl Edwards, in the fastest car according to NASCAR’s timing and scoring, moving up to challenge Vickers for the lead.
Edwards set up his pass of Vickers on lap 268, looking high off Turn Four and then moving low and around the No. 25 Chevrolet to take the lead again.
Greg Biffle’s woes continued with a spin on lap 290, sending Jimmie Johnson down pit road in avoidance when Biffle dropped his left-side tires on the apron of the track. Rookie Denny Hamlin, in the No. 11 Chevy out of Joe Gibbs’ stable, had almost a too-close view of the spin as the sun drops behind the horizon and the track’s lighting system has been on for a long time.
Pit stops saw Tony Stewart’s crew send him out just barely ahead of Mark Martin, followed by Vickers, Kenseth, Edwards and Mears. During the stops, Kyle Petty and Michael Waltrip stayed on the track, allowing Petty to get credit for leading one lap of the race.
On the lap 296 restart, Martin was ‘hung’ outside of Ryan Newman, allowing Stewart to move out to a lead of nearly a half second in just one lap under green. Vickers, Kenseth and Edwards followed the lead pair, then Kenseth and Edwards both got around Vickers and Edwards pipped Kenseth for third as Martin closed on Stewart for the race lead, only a car length behind the leader before diving inside Stewart for the lead as the pair drove down the front straight side-by-side, bringing the crowd to their feet. Martin then let Edwards around for second, in pursuit of Stewart.
With 24 laps to run, Edwards moved around Stewart on the back straight, taking the lead and moving ahead, then Martin moved low on the back straight and into Turn Three to take second from Stewart. A few laps later, Kenseth got around Stewart, followed on the next lap by Mears, dropping Stewart back to fifth.
Debris in the third turn caused a caution starting lap 320, setting up a major battle of the strategic planners in the pits. Edwards, Stewart and Johnson all pitted, Martin and Kenseth staying out on the track. Stewart and Edwards both took on right side tires only.
The green flag came back out with ten laps to run, Ken Schrader inside Martin but not challenging for position as a three-wide charge drove down the back straight with Martin opening a lead of over seven tenths of a second over Kenseth. Edwards got around Mears for third but was almost a second and a half behind Martin with eight laps to go. Ryan Newman moved around Martin to regain the lead lap, thanks to four new tires. With five laps left, Kenseth closed to within a half second, then Edwards passed Kenseth for second with four laps left.
Edwards passed Martin on the back straight approaching the white flag, took the white flag ahead of fellow Roush drivers Martin and Kenseth. Casey Mears took fourth, Jimmie Johnson fifth and Tony Stewart sixth. The next driver in the Chase was Kurt Busch, in tenth.
Unofficial Finish, Dickies 500:
Fin, St, Driver, Car, Pts/Bonus, Laps, Status
1, 30, Carl Edwards, No. 99 Office Depot Ford, 185/5, 334, Running
2, 8, Mark Martin, No. 6 Viagra Ford, 175/5, 334, Running
3, 3, Matt Kenseth, No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Ford, 175/10, 334, Running
4, 35, Casey Mears, No. 41 Target Dodge, 165/5, 334, Running
5, 11, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 160/5, 334, Running
6, 16, Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet, 155/5, 334, Running
7, 14, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Kinko’s Chevrolet, 146/0, 334, Running
8, 10, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, 142/0, 334, Running
9, 12, Elliott Sadler, No. 38 Combos Ford, 138/0, 334, Running
10, 18, Kurt Busch, No. 97 Crown Royal Ford, 134/0, 334, Running
11, 40, Jamie McMurray, No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge, 130/0, 334, Running
12, 29, Dale Jarrett, No. 88 The UPS Store/Toys for Tots Ford, 127/0, 334, Running
13, 20, Ricky Rudd, No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Ford, 124/0, 334, Running
14, 2, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, 121/0, 334, Running
15, 27, Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet, 118/0, 334, Running
16, 33, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, 120/5, 334, Running
17, 6, Mike Bliss, No. 0 Best Buy’s Geek Squad Chevrolet, 112/0, 334, Running
18, 42, Jeff Green, No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge, 109/0, 334, Running
19, 21, Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC/ditech.com Chevrolet, 111/5, 334, Running
20, 7, Greg Biffle, No. 16 National Guard Ford, 108/5, 334, Running
21, 38, Kyle Petty, No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge, 105/5, 334, Running
22, 26, Rusty Wallace, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, 97/0, 334, Running
23, 39, Sterling Marlin, No. 40 Coors Light Camouflage Can Dodge, 94/0, 334, Running
24, 37, Travis Kvapil *, No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Engines Dodge, 91/0, 334, Running
25, 1, Ryan Newman, No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge, 88/0, 334, Running
26, 17, Bobby Labonte, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet, 85/0, 333, Running
27, 19, Scott Wimmer, No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge, 82/0, 333, Running
28, 13, Dave Blaney, No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Texas Pride Chevrolet, 79/0, 333, Running
29, 41, Ken Schrader, No. 49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge, 76/0, 333, Running
30, 32, Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet, 73/0, 333, Running
31, 34, Terry Labonte, No. 44 Kellogg’s Chevrolet, 70/0, 333, Running
32, 9, Bill Elliott, No. 91 Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Dodge, 67/0, 333, Running
33, 23, Kevin Lepage, No. 66 Dickies Ford, 64/0, 331, Running
34, 22, Scott Riggs, No. 10 CENTRIX Financial Chevrolet, 61/0, 331, Running
35, 5, Jeremy Mayfield, No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 58/0, 330, Running
36, 43, Mike Wallace, No. 4 Lucas Oil Products Chevrolet, 55/0, 330, Running
37, 4, Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, 52/0, 329, Running
38, 25, Bobby Hamilton Jr., No. 32 Tide Chevrolet, 49/0, 328, Running
39, 36, Jimmy Spencer, No. 50 Allied Steel Structures Dodge, 46/0, 327, Running
40, 24, Kyle Busch *, No. 5 CARQUEST Chevrolet, 43/0, 325, Running
41, 31, Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 45/5, 294, Out of Race
42, 15, Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 37/0, 151, Out of Race
43, 28, Mike Skinner, No. 37 Patron Tequila/BoSPOKER.net Dodge, 34/0, 151, Out of Race
*: Rookie
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I called it in the beginning of the year. Carl Edwards will win the 2005 Nextel Cup Championship.