Weekend That Was: MIS

Oftentimes it is the little things that can make a big difference in life, and in Nextel Cup racing.

An adjustment here, an adjustment there -- and suddenly a bad day can turn into a good one. Or, of course, vice versa.

That doesn't just apply to adjustments on a car during a race. It also applies to attitude adjustments before, during and after races. The drivers and crews who can handle adversity, who many times can twist it to their advantage, often are the teams that come out on top.

• Send Joe your thoughts

Why bring this up after a weekend that included Carl Edwards winning the Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway? Because evidence of it abounded, and not just with the winning No. 99 Ford team powered by Roush Fenway Racing.

But we can start with Edwards' team.

Edwards had a tough night Saturday, when he thought he should have won the Busch Series race at Kentucky Speedway and didn't. He stewed over it long after his arrival in Michigan at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, even though his next race, and frankly a more important one, loomed less than 24 hours ahead.

Edwards couldn't get what might have been, but wasn't, out of his head.

"Our car was real fast in the Busch race and we had a little adversity and we didn't win the thing and we should have," Edwards said. "It was tough to sleep [Saturday] night."

The next morning, Edwards' salvation for the day came in the form of a conversation with Bob Osborne, his level-headed and intelligent crew chief.

"Bob and I talked a little bit, and he convinced me to put that behind me and go out and do a job," Edwards said.

Even then, it wasn't easy -- and more adversity loomed ahead when Edwards was penalized for speeding as he exited pit road, sending him to the back of those on the lead lap, in the 28th position, when he had been running up front all day.

"Our car was good enough that we eventually got back up to the front," Edwards said.

So was his temperament. Other drivers might have gone off into an emotional abyss, never to be seen in the top 10 again for the day. Edwards didn't, and eventually was rewarded with snapping his 52-race winless streak as a result.

It was a credit to his improved maturity as a racecar driver, and a reward for the dogged perseverance of a team that refused to give up when it could have done so and later offered up a litany of excuses instead of hoisting the race-winner's trophy.

Quality time

After an un-Happy Hour, Tony Stewart left Michigan in a good mood after charging from the back to finish third.

• Complete story, click here

Other developments during the weekend were more subtle, but perhaps no less significant.

Take Tony Stewart. His No. 20 Chevrolet got its right-front end mashed up in an accident that wasn't his fault during the final Cup practice on Saturday at MIS. Stewart was more than peeved. He was furious with driver David Gilliland, who had failed to hand signal that he was slowing and headed for the pits as Stewart bore down on him.

The ensuing accident cost Stewart what his crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, called the most critical 45 minutes of practice because it was the 45 minutes of practice during which track conditions on Saturday most closely mirrored the ones that were expected during Sunday's steamy race under sunny, clear skies.

Yet Stewart, as frustrated as he was, calmed himself even as he talked with the media and chided Gilliland for doing something "stupid." And when his team spent extra time at the track late Saturday afternoon, Stewart stayed there with them -- when in the past [and probably at some point again in the future], he might have stormed off to his motor coach.

Stewart felt like his presence in the garage helped, even though he wasn't one of the guys swinging a mallet.

"Times when they've had to do that before, I've not stayed necessarily," Stewart said. "But I didn't have any plans [Saturday] and it was just in one of those modes where the guys weren't down about it. I stayed for what I thought was going to be a little bit, and it ended up that I stayed for the whole thing. The end result was that the guys did appreciate that."

It was a sign of leadership from a guy who in the past might not have even considered it. He went on to finish third in the race after qualifying 41st -- marking the biggest gain for a driver at a Cup race in the history of MIS.

"That wasn't the difference between 23rd or third," said Stewart, "but just to show those guys once in a while and reassure them that you care as much as they do about it, I think is probably a big thing."

Well, it was a little thing that ended up being big.

Hope for Busch

Almost overlooked in the aftermath of all that transpired in the Michigan race was the impressive sixth-place finish of Kyle Busch.

Busch had a busy week leading up to the race, basically becoming the No. 1 free agent in the sport when it was announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to drive for Hendrick Motorsports beginning next season. As a spin-off result of that, Busch and team owner Rick Hendrick mutually agreed to part ways to make room for Earnhardt.

But Busch handled what appeared to be a monumental distraction like an old pro, making him even more appealing to team owners who are lining up to try to woo him into their folds. One of those, Ray Evernham, said that Busch reminds him of a young and more impetuous Tony Stewart -- and that he considers that a real good thing.

"There were people that would have written Tony off, and that would have been a huge mistake," Evernham said. "I don't know. I never really compare drivers and stuff. But if you look at some of the problems [Kyle] has had, you could compare him to Tony. And that's not a bad person to be compared to -- because Tony has done a tremendous job in maturing and becoming a great NASCAR race driver. And he's a good person, too. I see those qualities in Kyle."

Owning up

You can say that car owner Jack Roush sometimes has a tendency to whine about stuff, and that wouldn't be inaccurate. But you then also would have to admit that at least he tries to take the blame himself when calls his racing operation makes don't work out.

All five of Carl Edwards' victories in the Nextel Cup Series have come with Bob Osborne as the crew chief.

Carl Edwards (Cup wins)

Year	Track	Start	Led
March 2005	Atlanta	4	9
June 2005	Pocono	29	46
Oct. 2005	Atlanta	2	115
Nov. 2005	Texas	30	82
June 2007	Michigan	12	63

• Driver Page | Superstore

Like changing crew chiefs last year for Edwards. After Edwards won four times during his first full-time Cup season in 2005, Roush decided the driver could fare even better with Wally Brown at the helm of the team. It didn't work out, as Edwards failed to win a single race with Brown as his crew chief.

Osborne was re-installed as Edwards' crew chief prior to this season.

"Carl and Bob won four races the first year -- and of course I put my oar in and changed the thing last year and it didn't work out," Roush said. "I was surprised it took this long to get it going this year."

Second-half studs

Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief, said that he cannot offer a concrete explanation for why Stewart seems to win more races in the second halves of seasons. He said he just hopes it holds true again this season.

"I don't know. We just seem to have good racecars and just shoot ourselves in the foot, or we just have stupid luck," Zipadelli said. "Hopefully we get it out of our way and out of our system right now, and then in the second half when it really counts we can get ourselves locked into the top 12, we can go racing and just worry about a championship."

New definition

Of course, the definition of the second half of a season has changed with the advent of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Zipadelli talked after Michigan like he's already in the second half of the season -- and on one hand, he technically is. The regular season ends after 26 races now, and then the Chase, or Cup's version of the playoffs, begin.

It could be argued, with Stewart as a model, that drivers who make the Chase do more to protect their points positions than go for wins once the Chase commences -- and that drivers who don't make the Chase obviously are free to take more chances to try and win races in the final 10 events.

Last year Stewart won five times -- twice in the first 17 races and three times in the last eight when he already had been eliminated from the Chase. The previous year, when Stewart not only made the Chase but ended up capturing the championship, he definitely heated up with the summer months. His first win that year didn't come until at Sonoma on June 26, but he won the next week at Daytona as well and then won three more (in a stretch of four races) as July stretched into August. Once he was in the Chase, though, he didn't win again.

Pit stops

• Sunday's race was the 100th of Edwards' Cup career, which began with a race at Michigan in 2004.

• Edwards led 96 of the first 156 laps of the Busch race at Kentucky on Saturday, but his evening changed dramatically after a yellow caution flag came out for debris on Lap 152 -- shortly after Edwards had stretched his lead to what seemed an insurmountable 10 seconds. On the restart, Edwards was hit from behind and wrecked by Steven Wallace. He ended up finishing 33rd, but still has a commanding stranglehold on the lead in the Busch point standings.

• They say Michigan is a Ford track, and the weekend that was did nothing to disprove that theory. In addition to Edwards capturing the Cup race, fellow Ford and Roush Fenway Racing driver Travis Kvapil won the Truck Series race at MIS on Saturday. In fact, Busch Series winner Stephen Leicht made it a clean sweep for Ford on the weekend, although his win came at Kentucky Speedway.

• No offense to obviously the class of Nextel Cup operations these days, but wasn't it kind of nice not to have to talk about Hendrick Motorsports much for at least one day?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.