Notes: Edwards teaching, learning from young 'mate

MEXICO CITY -- After Nationwide Series qualifying Saturday for Sunday's Corona Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, third-place man Carl Edwards said he'd been leaning on his pole-sitting Roush Fenway Racing teammate Colin Braun's road-course experience.

Their deal was that Edwards would help Braun with oval racing, where the youngster has made only six starts in his career between the Truck and Nationwide Series.

"Our deal is, I can lean on him for road-course stuff and he's going to lean on me for the oval stuff," Edwards said. "But I haven't seen him race too much on an oval -- he might not need any help.

"I tell you what, he's one smart kid -- definitely very smart, very humble and he's going to be very tough to beat. I think he has a really bright future."

Braun's low-key nature came through in his response, when he said "If Carl thinks I can help him out here on the road course, [and] then I can go and pick his brain on the oval stuff, that's going to be a great deal for me."

Fast facts

What	Corona Mexico 200
When	Green, 2:22 p.m. ET Sunday
TV	ESPN/Deportes, 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 2 p.m. ET

Loop | Numbers | Notes | Track

Not looking to expand
In the category of premature speculation, Braun was asked in his media briefing if he would be interested in doing either of the Sprint Cup road races scheduled later this season, at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International.

"If the opportunity presented itself, I'd love to go do that," Braun said. "I'm a racecar driver. I love driving racecars. It's something I really enjoy and if I can do it every single weekend of my life, I'd be doing it [and] if I could do it every day, I'd be doing it.

"The more racing, the more driving I can do, the better. We'll see what happens. Nothing has ever been brought up about that."

Fellows missing NASCAR
Ron Fellows strolled the NASCAR paddock Saturday afternoon, smiling as ever, but for the first time in the last eight Nationwide Series road races, Fellows was rideless.

And make no mistake, even though the Banner Racing Pontiac GXP-R that Fellows is driving this weekend was a potential race winner -- he finished seventh in class -- in Saturday's Grand-Am Rolex Series main event, Fellows would have rather also been wheeling a stock car, in which he's won three times in his career.

"Up until about three weeks ago, I was going to be driving James Finch's car here," Fellows said of the No. 1 Chevrolet that regular driver Mike Bliss slotted into the 24th position on the grid for Sunday's fourth annual Corona Mexico 200.

But when Finch hired Bliss a little more than two weeks ago, it left Fellows too close to the race to secure another ride.

The Canadian said he is lined up to drive JR Motorsports' No. 5 Chevrolet in his home country's race in Montreal, and that he was close to announcing a deal for both Sprint Cup road races later this summer. (Continued)