Edwards crash at MIS gave Busch insurmountable lead

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- It's hard to keep pace with a driver who finishes first or second in 10 consecutive Nationwide Series races. But Carl Edwards managed to stay within striking distance of Kyle Busch for most of the summer, with wins at Milwaukee and Indianapolis, leaving him only 212 points behind with 13 races remaining.

What Edwards needed was a little misfortune when the circuit returned to Michigan in August for the Carfax 250, and he'd be back in the thick of the championship hunt. He had won there the previous season, kicking off a furious comeback that left him 21 points shy of catching eventual champion Clint Bowyer.

Title or nothing

Kyle Busch felt like he missed an opportunity at a championship by not running full time in 2008. So 200, it was title or bust for the No. 18 team.

• Complete story
• Shop: Champion's Gear

But it was Edwards who wound up on the wrong side of the bad luck, finishing 40th after being collected in a wreck just three laps into the event. Busch eventually wound up third after Brad Keselowski snuck by while he and Brian Vickers were battling for the lead, giving Busch what turned out to be an insurmountable lead for the rest of the season.

Starting seventh, Edwards was advancing through the field as 18-year-old Trevor Bayne, who started second, was slipping backwards. On the third lap, Edwards went to the outside of Bayne as cars stacked up three-wide in Turn 1. Bayne appeared to slide up the track, tapping Edwards and sending him into the outside wall.

Both drivers were able to straighten their cars for an instant, only to hit once again, as Edwards spun hard into the backstretch fence, causing severe damage to his car.

"At first, I thought they must have gotten together and slid up [the track]," Edwards said after first seeing the television replay. "But it definitely looks like I didn't give Trevor enough room. We all went into the corner there and I assumed that whoever was on the inside was going to go to the bottom. I was thinking about the rest of the corner and drove down in there and I kind of pinched him down."

The moment Edwards climbed from the cockpit of his battered No. 60 Ford, he knew his title hopes were all but over.

"It's very frustrating," Edwards said. "Man, early in the race. I probably should have been a little more cautious."

Busch would have two more missteps of his own, running into a backmarker while leading at Bristol the following week and then needing a substitute after coming down with flu-like symptoms at California. But Edwards would never have an opportunity to make a serious challenge.

"It wasn't a cake walk this year," Busch said after accepting the championship trophy Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "It was a tough year. Carl and Brad both kept it very close. You know, we didn't have the deal sewed up until we came down here and started the race."