NASCAR, Hollywood Casino 500: Takeaways from Kansas
By Ted Fleming
4. Restarts hurt Edwards
Carl Edwards had one of the fastest cars on the track at Kansas and as the laps wound down he was right there in the mix to win the Hollywood Casino 400. Late race cautions left him battling eventual race winner Kevin Harvick ultimately dropping him back where he was fighting Kyle Busch, his teammate, before finishing second.
“Just the restarts,” Edwards stated. “That bottom line got a good run and they got in front of me. And, then I got choked up and raced Kyle (Busch) for a long time and that set us back. But, man, we had a really good car so it’s frustrating to come home second here. But, Kevin (Harvick) and those guys did a really good job. They didn’t have that fast of a car, they just made the most of that restart and then took off. We’ll just go to Talladega now, but man I wanted to win. I really appreciate all of the support out here. We’ll come back next year, we’ll give it 100 percent effort. That was a lot of fun to run upfront today.”
Edwards, like Busch, is perfectly positioned to advance to the Elite Eight as he is fourth in points just 13 points behind Jimmie Johnson and 24 ahead of Joey Logano and Austin Dillon who are tied at the cutoff line.
Kansas was a home track for Edwards and a win would have been great, however, being the runner-up did everything but give him the automatic spot in the next round.
“There’s so many people that come to this racetrack that support me and have supported me. Not just when I’m racing here, but Capitol Speedway, Old Summit, Callaway Raceway, Godfrey, all these places I raced growing up. It’s a really special place for me. As much fun as I had racing up front, yeah, it stings. There are negative emotions tied to not winning here with that fast of a car. But that’s the way it goes.”