Carl Edwards 13th in the Nextel Cup standings after New Hampshire. Credit: Autostock

Edwards one spot short of pulling Loudon double

Says he's not worried about Chase yet he continues to close gap

LOUDON, N.H. -- If Carl Edwards makes the Chase for the Nextel Cup, he might look at his runner-up finish in Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300 as a key catalyst in making his second consecutive playoffs.

New Hampshire was Carl Edwards' second runner-up finish of the season. Credit: Autostock

Lenox Industrial Tools 300 Unofficial Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Kyle Busch Chevy 2. Carl Edwards Ford 3. Greg Biffle Ford 4. Mark Martin Ford 5. Kevin Harvick Chevy 6. Denny Hamlin Chevy 7. Jeff Burton Chevy 8. Kasey Kahne Dodge 9. Jimmie Johnson Chevy 10. Scott Riggs Dodge • Complete results, click here • Unofficial standings, click here Victory LaneKyle Busch celebrates his Lenox Industrial Tools 300 win Top finishersEdwards, Biffle, and Johnson talk about their days Final lapsKyle Busch holds off the field in overtime Race Rewind - LoudonWatch a condensed version of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300! Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

But don't count on Edwards contemplating it too much, because in the last 10 races he's gone from his closest margin to 10th -- 53 points after race 10 at Richmond -- to 146 points behind after Sunday's race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

"I've decided I'm not going to worry about it," Edwards said before he even knew that his second runner-up finish in the last five races had cut 47 points off his deficit coming into NHIS. "I'm just going to try to do the best that we can, and whatever happens, happens."

Edwards' own experience shows just how volatile playing the point standings can be, and how erratic his second full season in Nextel Cup has been.

New Hampshire was his ninth top-10 in 19 races, but only his third in his last seven starts. The fact that it came on the heels of a victory in Saturday's Busch Series race and was his only career top-10 in four New Hampshire Cup starts had him seeing a lot of silver lining.

"Who'd have thought we'd run second in a Cup race at New Hampshire?" Edwards said. "I haven't run that well here ever, so I was really excited about it -- had a good time.

"I had a lot of fun out there this weekend. We won the Busch race and to finish second was a blast. I had a good race with Denny Hamlin, who's a good competitor, at the end [but] we've got to get a win here, pretty soon."

Edwards won last season at Atlanta, the fourth race of the year and only his 17th career start. He went on to collect three more victories, but it's been 21 races since he last won -- though his New Hampshire turnaround made him think Sunday should have been it.

"This is a track that literally I've struggled at," Edwards said. "I've run so badly here in the Cup car, it's embarrassing -- so to run so well [Saturday] and to end up winning and to run second [Sunday] -- honestly, I'm pretty frustrated that we didn't win.

"Second is so frustrating because such a small difference in track position makes such a huge difference in the result [but] it helps me."

Edwards also said the steamy conditions -- marked by temperatures more than 90 degrees and high humidity -- didn't faze him a bit.

BUSCH RACE WINNER Carl Edwards held points leader Kevin Harvick at bay in the closing laps Saturday to win the New England 200 at New Hampshire, his third Busch Series win of the year.  •   Complete story, click here

"It was pretty warm, but my guys did a great job," Edwards said. "When you have a car that's that good it really doesn't seem to bother you at all. When you're back in the back it feels terrible, but running up front like that makes it easy -- that's fun.

"If I could've just got around Denny at the end, maybe I could've got to Kyle, but we had a good race -- we had a good time."

A number of contenders, including Hamlin, either ran low or out of fuel at the end of the race, and Edwards acknowledged he was low in the tank as well.

"[Hamlin] was shaking his fist at me out the window," Edwards said. "I didn't know he was out of gas, so I was all over the back of him. It was just a fun race.

"I decided to just let Wally [Brown, crew chief] do whatever he was going to do and he said [our pit strategy] was what we ought to do and it worked out.

"I don't know how we could've done it differently, exactly, but I was pretty happy with the way it ended up, though. It could've ended up worse."

And Edwards learned some things in the race he hopes he'll get a chance to use in the Chase, like when to have his car the best. He didn't appear in the top 10 until 100 of the 300 laps were run -- but when he got there he was a fixture.

"This is the first time I've run well here and I learned a lot about how to do that," Edwards said. "We weren't that fast at the beginning, it was just being there at the end and not putting yourself out of position. It's easy to slip up here and lose so many spots."