Notebook: Gamble doesn't pay off for Truex, Manion (cont'd)

Perseverance pays, a little

Edwards led the first 87 laps of the race from the Bud Pole, but shortly after he pitted under caution, his car was back on pit road with a horrible miss in the engine. His crew sent him back to the garage where one of the Roush Yates engine technicians said "we put it back together well enough for him to run some more."

That wasn't much more, but it did enable Edwards to get out of last place -- though he did finish 42nd after completing only 125 laps. It amounted to his fourth DNF of the season, and the third due to engine failure.

"That's a great racecar -- that thing is awesome," Edwards said after falling from fifth to ninth in the standings.

"It was something important in the engine. I don't know what it is, but we don't have many engine failures.

"It's too bad to have one on this day -- I would have welcomed one at Texas last week [when he started 21st and finished 26th, three laps down] -- but to have it [Sunday] ...

"I could go just about as fast as I wanted, so you don't get that very often. It's too bad it blew up."

Newman's second five

After scoring his second consecutive top-five finish, and his seventh of the season, Ryan Newman said he was satisfied, but was still looking for better performances, which would enable him to break his current 80-race winless skein. Pit strategy enabled him to finish fifth Sunday.

"We knew that we were good enough to get track position with the disadvantage -- with two tires or with fuel only and that was OK," Newman said. "I wasn't mad about that, but I wish we just had that extra little speed so we could get on everyone else's strategy -- you know, being able to take two tires when everybody takes two, or take four when they take four.

"We're getting closer to that -- it's just a matter of time. To have a top-five finish is great. To build on another top-five finish, that's two in a row, that's really great. I don't know if we've done that all year, so to finish up at least two out of three would be great."

Newman actually scored consecutive second-place finishes in June, with the COT at Dover and then the next weekend at Pocono, with the "standard" car.

"I think both Penske teams have been good all year with the Car of Tomorrow," Newman said. "We haven't had the greatest finishes, but we've been competitive. Hopefully, we can build on that for next year in the Car of Tomorrow on those short tracks, but more importantly have a leg up on the intermediate tracks."

Autostock

Sterling Marlin

Marlin finds part-time ride

Veteran Sterling Marlin wanted to do a limited schedule of Sprint Cup racing next season, and according to Phoenix Racing general manager and crew chief Marc Reno, Marlin will get to do more than that for owner James Finch.

Reno was feeling optimistic after his organization, which runs two full-time teams in the Busch Series but only makes intermittent trips to the Cup Series, tested at Memphis Motorsports Park and then came to Phoenix to make its first Car of Tomorrow attempt.

Marlin qualified 29th for the Checker Auto Parts 500, and six teams with about 200 more attempts this season than Finch's bunch, went home. Marlin ended up 25th, the first car one lap down.

It's got Reno and company anticipating 2008 already, although first they'll attempt their South Florida sponsor's home race next weekend at Homestead, with Marlin.

"We've got a Hendrick's car and motor for there, and we've signed a Hendrick [Motorsports] engine deal for next year," Reno said. "We got a car and a motor from them for Homestead. That will be the first time we use a Hendrick's motor -- this was a Childress motor.

"We've got at least nine Cup races scheduled with [the Miccosukee Resort in South Florida], and we may do more next season if we get the sponsorship. We'll do the four speedway races [two apiece at Daytona and Talladega], the two road courses, Bristol, Richmond and Homestead.

"Sterling will probably do most of them, but he doesn't want to road race, and before we knew Sterling was available we picked two of the road races, because we figured those were easier to get into. So we'll probably put in Max Papis or [Scott] Pruett."

The Miccosukee Tribe will back Finch's Nationwide team for the third consecutive season.

"The Indians are going to sponsor our 1 car [in the 2008 Nationwide Series] and at this point, Johnny Sauter is going to drive one of our [Nationwide] cars full time. If we've got enough sponsorship, Sterling and Johnny will drive full time; and if not, Sterling's gonna drive part-time in our second car."

Reno said the second Nationwide Series car would use the 4 branding that Finch had previously used with Jeff Purvis, as the team opted to let Mike Wallace take the No. 7 he used this season in a Finch car with Geico sponsorship to another team, while Phoenix would keep the owner points the car accrued.