NASCAR Chase Race No. 8: Carl Edwards wins AAA Texas 500
By Ted Fleming
It was a long day’s journey into night after a stubborn Texas Motor Speedway was finally dried out, but not after nearly six hours had slipped away before rain came back giving the victory to the No. 19 Toyota.
Carl Edwards is probably glad he got an extra hour of sleep Saturday night because it came in handy as he endured one of the longest days in NASCAR this season. He punched his ticket into the Championship Four with a rain shortened AAA Texas 500, just 41 laps from it going the full distance.
When a caution came out at lap 255, Edwards was trailing Martin Truex Jr., but an 11.8 second pit stop allowed him to take the lead and he was never challenged the rest of the way. The win ended a 24-race drought for Edwards giving him his fourth overall win at the 1.5 mile Fort Worth track.
“I’ve got an amazing group of guys,” said Edwards about that amazing pit stop. “They work so well together. They’ve got my back all of the time. Dave (Rogers, crew chief), man, he’s like a brother. Just a great guy. And, all of my guys, I can’t thank them enough. We have a shot at the championship and that’s all we wanted this year and I can’t wait to go to Homestead. It’s going to be a blast.”
Joey Logano, Truex, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch would round out the top five.
With just one race remaining before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where a champion will be crowned, here are the standings after the second of three Round of 8 events:
Jimmie Johnson – 1 win (Automatically advances)
Carl Edwards – 1 win (Automatically advances)
Joey Logano +1 above cutoff
Kyle Busch +1
Matt Kenseth -1
Denny Hamlin -2
Kevin Harvick -18
Kurt Busch -34
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PIT NOTES:
Kevin Harvick started the race with radio issues and it was discovered the roof antenna was not put back on when the covers were taken off the cars after the rain.
Matt DiBenedetto, the driver of the No. 83 BK Racing Toyota, did not compete in the race due to entering the NASCAR concussion protocol after his crash in the Xfinity race on Saturday. He was able to climb out of the car under his own power and despite being checked out in the infield medical center, he was not cleared to race on Sunday. He was replaced by Jeffrey Earnhardt.
Chase Elliott was not feeling well all day with flu-like symptoms and by the time the cars rolled off pit row for the start, Justin Allgaier was held over from his Xfinity race a day ago just in case he could not continue. He was able to go the distance.
CAUTIONS:
Lap 00 – Weather delay.
Lap 28 – Competition caution.
Lap 108 – Brian Scott spins out without any contact.
Lap 117 – Debris on track.
Lap 143 – Paul Menard blows tire.
Lap 255 – Austin Dillon spins after being tapped by David Ragan.
Lap 262 – Austin Dillon hits wall, Casey Mears and Brian Scott also wreck.
Lap 290 – Rain. END RACE
AAA TEXAS 500 FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Carl Edwards
2 – Joey Logano
3 – Martin Truex Jr.
4 – Chase Elliott
5 – Kyle Busch
6 – Kevin Harvick
7 – Matt Kenseth
8 – Kasey Kahne
9 – Denny Hamlin
10 – Ryan Newman
11 – Jimmie Johnson
12 – Ryan Blaney
13 – Alex Bowman
14 – Brad Keselowski
15 – Kyle Larson
16 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17 – AJ Allmendinger
18 – Greg Biffle
19 – Jamie McMurray
20 – Kurt Busch
21 – Chris Buescher
22 – Aric Almirola
23 – Michael McDowell
24 – Danica Patrick
25 – Clint Boyer
26 – Regan Smith
27 – Brian Scott
28 – Paul Menard
29 – Landon Cassill
30 – Trevor Bayne
31 – Tony Stewart
32 – Michael Annett
33 – David Ragan
34 – Jeffrey Earnhardt
35 – Reed Sorenson
36 – Joey Gase
37 – Austin Dillon
38 – Ryan Ellis
39 – Casey Mears
40 – Josh Wise