Edwards' wild week ends on another bad note at LMS

CONCORD, N.C. -- Once Carl Edwards lost a lap after getting caught on pit road during a caution, he radioed his team to boost their spirits.

"All right guys, here we go. We never give up. That's what we do," Edwards told his crew.

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But before he could get back to green-flag racing, his No. 99 Ford suffered an electrical malfunction inside the ignition box and quit running.

"It's pretty amazing, we have two pretty much independent ignition systems and for some reason they both quit," said Edwards, who after repairing the car went into survival mode, 16 laps down, and finished 33rd in Saturday night's Bank of America 500.

The Roush-Fenway Racing team arrived at Lowe's Motor Speedway second in the standings but left the North Carolina track fourth.

They weren't the only team in the Chase to find trouble.

The race was slightly reminiscent of last week's event at Talladega, only this time it wasn't Edwards' fault. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth both lost ground in the race for the championship.

Seemingly from the start of the race, Earnhardt was struggling with his No. 88 Chevrolet.

"As soon as I get off the gas it yanks sideways," Earnhardt radioed to his crew early in the night.

And in the midst of him communicating additional problems to his crew, Earnhardt's right-front tire blew with no warning and sent him into the Turn 3 wall.

"I wasn't running real hard at all," he said. "I was actually taking it pretty easy. It just popped. I don't know. There had been a couple of wrecks in that corner. No telling what might have been laying under there.

"We had a real good car and I was just taking it easy, real easy. We ran real, real hard here in the spring and worked our car too hard. I was just going to take care of the racecar. That was what I was trying to do."

Earnhardt said he can't seem to escape his bad luck of late.

"I am just ready to shake it," he said.

After repairing his No. 88 Chevrolet, Earnhardt returned to the track on Lap 150 -- 45 laps down -- and finished the night in 36th place. (Continued)