Edwards slowly turning Chase into two-man show

FORT WORTH, Texas -- It went against every fiber of being in his body, but Carl Edwards knew that he had to trust what crew chief Bob Osborne was telling him at the end of Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Osborne was imploring his Sprint Cup Series driver to go, well, slower. Osborne figured it was their only chance to reach the checkered flag in the Dickies 500 before anyone else.

"I never had Bob yell at me for going too fast, but he did [Sunday]," said Edwards, who was nursing a 12-second lead over the second-place car of Jeff Gordon at the time.

Edwards did what Osborne asked in an effort to conserve fuel and eventually emerged victorious for the second week in a row before an estimated crowd of 165,000. But the driver was, you might say, a slow believer in the theory that to win for the eighth time this season he had to curb his urge to go faster.

"I was just so nervous we were missing something," Edwards said. "I thought there was no way we could go this slow, save this much fuel, and still be leading this race.

"Of all the ways you can win a race, fuel mileage isn't the most exciting one. But we had, I believe, a dominant car all day. The car was very fast. Then we got behind on that last pit stop and it was still very cool to win the thing, no matter how we did it."

The car certainly was fast. His No. 99 Ford led a race-high 212 of the 334 laps Sunday. But it was slow enough when it needed to be to allow Edwards to travel a remarkable 69 laps on one tank of fuel, which, in turn, enabled him to shave 76 points off the seemingly insurmountable 183-point advantage leader Jimmie Johnson had in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship entering the day.

A believer
Edwards kept telling anyone who would listen -- most wouldn't -- that this Chase isn't over. After Johnson won at Martinsville and others said it was over already, Edwards kept saying that all he had to do was win the final four races.

The universal response to that: Yeah, right.

Well, now Edwards is halfway there. And after Johnson had to battle mightily just to salvage 15th in Texas, minimizing what could have been major damage to his two-time title defense, Edwards has at least one other guy who legitimately believes in his championship chances.

That would be Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing and his big boss. Edwards may be fond of repeating his mantra that he does not believe in momentum, arguing that it doesn't exist in racing, Roush espoused his belief in the opposite after Edwards' latest victory.

"Sometimes momentum is a wonderful thing," Roush said. "I know I've heard Carl say he doesn't believe in momentum, but I've seen it and it's pretty real for me. Right now, the 99 and Carl and the Ford Fusion and Bob have got this momentum."

Not only that, but Roush said that he believes the momentum Edwards is building could actually rattle the otherwise sturdy mental cage of the No. 48 Johnson team he is pursuing.

"If it causes a misstep and they wind up second-guessing themselves on a change or if they wind up pushing it on their strategy some, it could make the difference," Roush said.

With only races at Phoenix and Homestead remaining in the 10-race Chase, it could make all the difference. Johnson is still a comfortable 103 points ahead -- but you don't have to be smarter than a fifth-grader to do the math now and realize that Edwards is still in it.

He made up 77 points Sunday. If he makes similar in-roads this Sunday in Phoenix, the season finale at Homestead could suddenly produce a dose of season-ending drama that has been missing lately.

Osborne admission
There are those who dislike the current Chase format. In fact, there are those who absolutely despise it.

But after a weekend in which it was much debated -- and most drivers defended it -- Edwards provided hard evidence that the Chase may just be working. Osborne admitted that he wouldn't have risked the entertaining fuel-mileage gamble at the end of Sunday's Texas roundup if the No. 99 team hadn't been in a position where he figured they had to roll the dice.

"If the points were closer or we were in the lead [in points], no, we would not have made that type of decision to gamble," Osborne said.

He figured that the worst Edwards would finish if they gambled and ran out of gas toward the end was 15th. So he bet on first versus 15th, and it was fun to watch it play out.

"It was just a risk worth taking," Osborne said.

Then Osborne slipped and talked about being motivated to secure second in the standings, before catching himself and saying that they're still "shooting for first." Edwards believes they can get there. So does Roush.

After Sunday's slow-motion finish, during which Edwards displayed the patience and maturity of a champion by avoiding the natural desire to go faster and win going away at the risk of not winning at all, suddenly so do a whole lot of others.

"It's strange because when I put the firesuit on and get in the racecar and we're racing, you go as hard as you possibly can," Edwards said. "Everything in me is trying to figure out how to go faster all the time -- so it sounds kind of silly to say, but it really is difficult to figure out how to slow down sometimes."

He figured it out Sunday, and in the process made this Sprint Cup season a whole lot more interesting for at least one more week.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.