Osborne happy to be back on top of No. 99 pit box (cont'd)

"It's hard watching a program that you spent so much time on, and put so much effort into have its issues," Osborne said. "Every program does, but sitting on the sidelines watching it, and not experiencing it with your guys, is difficult.

"But there was a lot of pride in what they accomplished. Whether it is the case or not, I look at these guys as a reflection of me -- I want them to do well when I'm around and of course I want them to do well when I'm not around.

"I tell them how I want things done and I tell them what procedures to use, I tell them just about everything to do on a given weekend -- and if that works well even when I'm not there, then I guess they're listening, paying attention and they respect what I say."

But despite the pride he felt for his team virtually maintaining its point standing in his absence and even winning a race, Osborne said there was no substitute for being back in his comfort zone.

"It feels great," Osborne said as he walked out of the garage Friday evening. "Nobody wants to sit around and do nothing on the weekends when their job is to be at a racetrack."

More than just a job, Osborne said that for him, his job is also a passion, as it is for many in any NASCAR garage.

"Everybody here does this job because they want to," Osborne said. "Nobody does it because they have to -- because this is a hard job. It's a hard lifestyle, traveling all the time [so] you're here because this is what you like to do -- what you love to do.

"All of us complain about traveling, saying 'man, I can't wait for a weekend off, or the offseason;' or this, that and the other thing. But the season just started, and [NASCAR] told me I got to stay home -- so that's pretty hard to take.

"It was a long eight weeks for me."

It wasn't easy for Edwards, either, even though Edwards was in a position to win the race after the penalties, at Atlanta, when his car's engine failed, relegating him to 42nd in the race and 17th in the standings -- the lowest he's been this season.

Edwards followed up with a 16th at Bristol and a ninth at Martinsville, neither of which reflected the way he ran; as Osborne said, "we didn't get the fuel pickup right at Bristol when we were running in the top-five; and ran out of fuel at Martinsville when we were running third."

Edwards broke through with a victory at Texas, which carried him back into the top 10 in the standings. But through it all, Edwards knew very well what he was missing.

"First of all, Bob and I are friends," Edwards said. "So we talk about everything anyway -- but all day Friday, Saturday and then on the radio Sunday you end up talking to that guy that's sitting on the [pit] box and I didn't realize until Bob was gone how well we communicated [about] all of the little things.

"He could tell from the inflection of my voice about how I felt about certain things, so that chemistry that everyone always talks about -- now I really understand it."

As Edwards struggled to deal with it, he said he often spoke with Osborne by cell phone -- including a few late night calls -- but it was hardly enough.

"We communicated a lot while he was gone, but when he's not right there it's a big hindrance," Edwards said. "That's a serious penalty to not have your crew chief, but I tried to communicate as much as I could.

"I don't know what the craziest thing was, but I'd call him in the middle of the night. I woke him up a couple of times. I was just thinking about stuff for the race on Sunday and one time I called him, and it had to be 11:30 or 12 o'clock there -- and he was dead asleep and wasn't very excited about that.

"But when he's that close like he is here, I can go ask him anything. It's hard because you think about it all day and then something will pop in your head."

Osborne only shook his head when prodded about Edwards cellular "indiscretions."

"He called me a few times, really, later than I would have liked, because I'm kind of an early-to-bed kind of a guy," Osborne said. "But we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We talked every day, and the team did so well it wasn't really that big of a deal.

"It wasn't any major, mad panic sessions -- but a couple times there were some issues where we had to have a little sit-down and discuss what we were gonna do. But for the most part the team did an extremely good job without me there, which I was happy to see."

Osborne said the break did allow him to enjoy some home life.

"I got a lot of work done -- got caught up on a lot of work, a few things -- a little bit of landscaping and some odds-and-ends things on the house, for sure," Osborne said with a laugh. "But it was nothing interesting, other than work."