If Edwards is holding back as some say, then look out

Kyle Busch said he thought Carl Edwards was holding back during Sunday's running of the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and Edwards didn't deny it.

That may be great news for Edwards and the resurgent folks at Roush Fenway Racing, but it appears to be bad news for everyone else chasing them this Sprint Cup season. Holding back or not, Edwards won the Samsung 500 going away.

And even though the current Sprint Cup point standings show him merely in 10th place, that is a mirage. On the whole, no one has been better this season.

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Edwards' win Sunday was his series-high third of the season. No one else has won more than once. Had it not been for a 100-point penalty assessed after the second of Edwards' wins -- at Las Vegas, where a loose oil-tank lid was ruled by NASCAR officials to have illegally aided his cause -- Edwards would rank fourth in the standings to back up that claim.

Edwards, in fact, thinks he should have at least one more win, citing engine problems while leading at Atlanta that turned what he figured was going to be another great day into a lousy 42nd-place finish. That fiasco almost contributed to what would have been an impatient and imprudent move heading into Sunday's race.

It seems interim crew chief Chris Andrews (Bob Osborne, Edwards' usual crew chief, is serving a six-week suspension for the oil-tank lid violation) came to Edwards Sunday morning and mentioned that there might be a small problem with the engine in their No. 99 Ford. They had noticed it during practice on Saturday, even as Edwards was flying around faster than everyone else, as usual.

Andrews was just trying to be honest, but it was the last thing Edwards wanted to hear.

"Every time we've blown -- the last three engines that we've had that failed [going back to last year] -- I felt like it cost us three wins," Edwards said. "So I'm hypersensitive to anything with the engine. They have been nice enough to tell me when anything is going on because I've freaked out so much on them."

Of course, that didn't prevent him from freaking out anyway.

Best policy?
Honesty, in this case, almost wasn't the best policy. Edwards' immediate reaction was to insist that Andrews replace the engine. That would have sent Edwards to the back of the field for the start of Sunday's event, and obviously, in retrospect, would have put a perfectly fine car out to premature pasture.

Andrews, much to Edwards' later appreciation, talked some sense into his driver.

"They talked me off the emotional ledge, was how one of the guys put it," Edwards said. "It's the truth. We had a meeting and [Andrews] told me, 'Hey, you have to trust me and trust us.' That's what we did and it worked out."

Edwards ended up leading the race on three different occasions for a total of 123 laps, nearly twice as many as anyone else. Kyle Busch, who led 50 laps himself and went on to finish third behind Edwards and second-place finisher Jimmie Johnson, later surmised that Edwards probably could have led all 339.

"I knew the 99 was holding back and not showing everything he had," Busch said. "He probably could have led how many ever laps there were. He didn't show his full hand."

Again, Edwards did not disagree with this assessment. He admitted he could have gone faster, but that might have put unnecessary stress on an engine that he had doubts about at the start of the race. So he played it coy and bided his time before taking over the race.

He also stressed that he does not agree with Busch and others who constantly are bashing NASCAR's new Cup car and how it works -- or doesn't -- with the tires currently being supplied by Goodyear. (Busch took the time to do so again following Sunday's race).

Edwards said he knows his perspective may be skewed because of all the winning he's been doing lately -- but he was quick to add that he shouldn't have to apologize for it.

"It's just my opinion when I say I like this type of racing, and the difficult tires and all that. I like it and it's my opinion and that's where I stand," Edwards said. "If I was running 15th, I might have a different opinion. But right now we are running very well, and it's good.

"We work real hard -- and when we run like this, it's fun. I don't know what else to say. I really have zero issue with it."

His kind of track
The irony of the new car becoming Edwards' kind of ride is that last year, team owner Jack Roush, by his own admission, misinterpreted NASCAR's rules concerning testing and initially fell far behind other teams that were more aggressive in their approach to it. It's safe to say that now they're not only all caught up but even out front of the others, especially at the intermediate 1.5-mile tracks like Texas Motor Speedway.

Edwards said he likes the combination of this car on this type of track because, as a driver, he thinks more of the team's destiny lies in his own nimble hands.

"The part that I do like -- that I can say specifically that I love -- is that I feel that I can make a difference out there lap-to-lap at a racetrack like this," Edwards said. "I can picture the car sideways here or play with the throttle here or there and change what that stopwatch says every lap.

"That's cool. That's what it's about. That's what I grew up doing in Missouri on the local dirt tracks, being able to make a difference by pushing those pedals and stuff."

So let the others complain about the new car or whatever else they want to complain about. The Carl and Captain Jack appear to be growing ever more comfortable with it. Roush couldn't even find much to complain about in the aftermath of Sunday's latest triumph.

"I've heard people say that the races are boring, and if the [new car] is too hard to drive that you don't get enough side-by-side racing," Edwards said. "The fact is, these are the 43 best drivers in the world, the cars have 900 horsepower, drive 200 miles an hour, and the tracks and tires are slippery, and that's a spectacle. That's what it's supposed to be.

"It's not supposed to be easy for everyone and it's not supposed to be like taking a drive down the interstate. I'm tired of hearing people complain and the media making up stories about how terrible it is and stuff. This is auto racing. There are going to be people that are faster and days when we won't be able to keep up because the car is too hard to drive, and somebody is going to win. That's racing."

Right now no one is doing it better than Edwards in particular and Roush Fenway Racing in general. And if Edwards is holding anything back, look out.

That means there is about to be lots more complaining coming from the other guys scrambling to catch up.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.