FORT WORTH, Texas -- There's no questioning Carl Edwards' ability behind the wheel of a race car.

But in the aftermath of an agonizing defeat on pit road Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway that led to a 10th-place finish in the Samsung 500, Edwards continued to massage his skill as a team builder.

"You did a good job getting us in position to take the lead," Edwards told his crew on his cool-down lap. "But remember, that car sitting in Victory Lane, we drove right by."

Those carefully chosen syllables, as well as Edwards' words to his crew over their radio network in the closing stages may gain weight if their losing skein, which reached seven races after Sunday's misfortune, continues. That comes into sharper focus when compared to Edwards' winning ratio a year ago, when he and his crew won nine times, or a victory every four races.

"A win's a win, and you just can't give 'em away like that -- it's just not good," Edwards said. "I can't sit here and say we would have won -- but damn, we wouldn't have finished 10th."

Race winner Jeff Gordon's post-race analysis didn't help, after the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford crew had previously put Edwards in position to possibly win. The fact is, in the final 26 laps, Edwards could only gain one spot and Gordon said if he hadn't come out first, he couldn't have won.

"Races are won a lot of different ways," Gordon said. "Sometimes the fastest car wins and sometimes the best pit crew gets the win. You never know how the results would have changed had Carl not had his problems. All I know is our team had a great pit stop [and] we won the race.

"That's because we got out front and we had a fast car the first 10, 12 laps of that run."

And that's probably a fact -- as he sat in his car waiting for the final restart -- Edwards knew as much as Gordon did.

Edwards started the race 13th and took 90 percent of the event to get his car in position to take the lead, which he did on lap 296 of 334 by passing Gordon. Eight laps later, the event's sixth and final caution flew.

Edwards hit pit road leading, but left the service alley on lap 305 in a dead heat with David Reutimann -- but for 10th. When NASCAR determined Reutimann had nipped him to the exit line, Edwards was 11th with only 26 laps left.

After the field had circled the track, Edwards' crew chief Bob Osborne told Edwards he was "P 11," which meant behind Gordon and nine other drivers.

In a voice that sounded like he was ready to sever railroad spikes, Edwards responded, "I got nothing more to say."

After a brief, equally painful exchange about the after-the-fact positioning of Reutimann in front of him, Edwards circled in silence for about a lap before he keyed his radio and spoke calmly.

"We're all upset the same amount [but] we're a team," Edwards said. "We know what our problem is, and we've got to work together to fix it."

The race's final stretch played perfectly to Gordon's strength although Edwards' final pre-green flag hope -- to get a top-10 finish -- was realized.

"We missed the set-up, so from the beginning of the race we were struggling to get the balance, and then Bob [Osborne] got it balanced, we had that one good pit stop, passed Jeff for the lead, and I thought, 'If we can have just one more, we'll be all right.' Edwards said.

"My guys are trying real hard, we're all in this together, but we can do a better job than that and I'm sure we will."

By the time he met a crowd of bystanders outside his hauler in the garage area, Edwards was even more composed.

"The way this works is that I don't need anybody to tell me when I've done something wrong," Edwards said. "They don't need anybody to tell them. Those guys want to win this race just as bad as I do. We're all in this together -- we're a family. They don't come yell at me when I hit the wall, so it's not my position to be mad at them -- we just have to do whatever we can to fix it.

"Hopefully, that's good enough. I think we'll get better. They can do it. They had one pit stop; we passed a ton of people and put us in a position to get the lead. I know they can do it. We just got to figure out how to do it every time.

"We just got to be better. It's not a personal thing. We just have to be better."

Osborne was at the car briefly with Edwards, but left for a short stroll through the garage. When he returned, he said Edwards' people skills are one more thing that ensures their close bond.

"Carl has always been an extremely good people person," Osborne said. "His personality suits that very well and I think that's one of the things that balances us out so well, because I'm not the most people-person type of a personality -- I'm a little harsh and a little rough and things like that.

"He's been that way right from the beginning, he's always just been good with people."

Edwards said two of the over-the-wall crewmen he started the season with have been injured and it's been a scramble to put together a consistently effective crew.

"It's not the best circumstance," Edwards said. "But still, we can do better."

Edwards' wasn't the only team to have trouble on pit road Sunday, but he and Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle each had potential race-winning cars knocked backwards with pit-road troubles. Biffle's No. 16 Ford ended up rebounding and finishing third.

Video
• Edwards battles Gordon for the lead