Carl Edwards was fastest in Friday's second practice session. Credit: Autostock

Roush team finds speed, DEI cars still searching

HAMPTON, Ga. -- The Roush Racing juggernaut rolled into Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon, with two Roush cars leading the final Nextel Cup practice of the weekend.

Carl Edwards led Happy Hour with a lap of 188.648 mph, edging teammate Mark Martin, who went 188.111.

On the other end of the spectrum were the Dale Earnhardt Inc. cars of Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who struggled to find speed Friday. Waltrip was 41st of 50 cars at 182.219 mph, more than a second off Edwards' best lap.

Earnhardt Jr., the defending race winner, was 43rd at 181.449 mph. In three races since DEI swapped crews, the two cars have only one top-five finish.

	Mark Martin
	GOLDEN CORRAL 500 •   1st Practice Speeds •   2nd Practice Speeds

Meanwhile, Roush Racing has four of its five drivers in the top 10 in the Nextel Cup points standings, with defending Cup champion Kurt Busch leading Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson.

Busch was 13th in Friday's final practice, with teammate Greg Biffle sixth. Roush has gotten off to a fast start under NASCAR's new aerodynamic package in 2005, and Edwards credits the Roush engineering department.

"I feel like we have a strong engineering presence at Roush," Edwards said. "A lot of the crew chiefs -- and my crew chief (Bob Osborne) specifically -- have an engineering background, and they do a really good job of modeling and testing. We have good test procedures, and our aerodynamicists are great.

"I feel like, in that respect, really helps us a lot to adapt to anything new that was thrown our way. We really looked forward to the new changes just because it's a change, and we felt like we could adapt quickly. I'd say that technical background and technical presence at Roush is what helps us."

Jason Leffler, who needs to qualify his way into Sunday's race, was third in Happy Hour at 187.418, followed by Tony Stewart and Johnson. Bill Elliott was seventh, with Bobby Labonte eighth, Casey Mears ninth and Kyle Busch 10th.

Johnson and Busch are both driving with their regular crew chiefs this weekend as Hendrick is appealing the suspensions of Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson. Todd Berrier, who also was suspended, elected to skip Atlanta. His driver, Kevin Harvick, was 26th Friday.

Ryan Newman led the first practice at 190.817, with Biffle second, Johnson third, Stewart fourth and Joe Nemechek fifth. Newman was 12th-fastest in Happy Hour.

In a unique schedule this weekend, Nextel Cup cars practice and qualify Friday but have all of Saturday off before Sunday's race.

"It makes for a very long Friday," Jamie McMurray said. "You get here early on Friday, and you're here all night long. I guess for the Cup guys who don't run the Busch race it's no big deal, but it takes a whole lot to get used to. When you get used to practice from 9-11 and 11-1 and then qualifying both cars, it makes it hard to get your car right.

"We've got two hours to do it in and then we've got all day Saturday to worry about it. ... Tonight we're going to qualify, and these cars are always loose at Atlanta for qualifying. It's going to be interesting tonight to see how bad the cars bottom out and what you're going to have to do to make it drive decent in qualifying with a race setup in it."