VOTE: Was Edwards’ move clean or dirty?
Carl Edwards was still smiling when he walked into the Richmond International Raceway media center to talk about his thrilling NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win an hour earlier Sunday afternoon. He surveyed the room of reporters and had a little small talk with crew chief Dave Rogers and team owner Joe Gibbs.
Then, to his credit, he got right to it.
“First off, if my cat ever gets sick, I don’t care how much it costs, I will take it to the Banfield Pet Hospital if that helps,” Edwards said, allowing a wide smile after immediately plugging his teammate Kyle Busch‘s race sponsor even before his own, XFINITY.
Earlier, Edwards landed his trademark victory back flip after the checkered flag. But what happened on the white flag lap with Busch may require some additional cordial contortions as well.
And that’s OK. That’s racing. The kind that pumps hearts and generates excitement.
Edwards’ bump-and-run pass — importantly, not bump-and-wreck — of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch on the last lap of Sunday’s race capped off an intriguing day of competition and amazingly marked the first time in the Richmond track’s long and storied history that a race was won with a final-lap pass.
The crowd was thrilled with the finish. The media was abuzz with the drama. And somewhere in heaven, Dale Earnhardt was having a good
“attaboy” moment too.
Lug nuts, schmug nuts. There was no talk of that Sunday afternoon. The week’s earlier dramatic obsession with pit stops was completely overshadowed by what makes this sport so good: actual close and dramatic racing on track. And daring last lap passes as Edwards had just executed.
It probably wouldn’t have mattered if it were Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle versus Ricky Stenhouse Jr. or Jimmie Johnson blowing by Dale Earnhardt Jr. — well, OK maybe on that one.
It was good stuff. The reason people like this sport.
So, while Edwards was grinning after the race, his JGR teammate Busch was understandably not, his Toyota having been carefully rearranged by Edwards last charge for a victory.
Busch, clearly and understandably unhappy with his “adjusted” finish, went into a bit of the NFL’s Marshawn Lynch mode in the media center afterward — repeating the same answer to both questions about the last lap contact with Edwards.
It was the second time in the season’s nine races that team owner, Joe Gibbs has had to address this kind of situation — which, if you think about it, isn’t a super bad thing.
Denny Hamlin‘s win in the season-opening Daytona 500 came on a last lap blow by of JGR teammate Matt Kenseth.
Gibbs was honest when asked about the team dynamics after such dramatic finishes between teammates.
“It’s a tough thing because it’s certainly painful for one side,” Gibbs said. “You’re on such a high with the other side. It’s tough. You kind of know what we’ll do is kind of go to work and work our way through it.”
Edwards said he and Busch did not speak after the race, but also anticipated some discussion before this week’s stop at Talladega Superspeedway, which interestingly enough so often relies on drafting “partners.”
“I wish it was anybody but my teammate that we had to race like that with,'” Edwards said. “Big picture to me, we both got wins (already) and we’re both in the Chase and it’s fun to race your teammate for the win.'”
Edwards’ crew chief Dave Rogers — who is also Busch’s former crew chief — was direct with his assessment. And he said what most race fans feel.
“If we look at the big picture, today was a great day for NASCAR,” Rogers said, reiterating that he and Busch are still close friends. “Our fans don’t want to see teammate orders. They don’t deserve teammates to fall in line. They deserve good, hard racing.
“So, I think today was a great day for the sport. It stinks that we had to move a teammate. I’m sure (Busch’s crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and I will talk about it and Carl and Kyle will talk about it. But I think it would be very disappointing to our fans if Joe imposed a team order and told us, ‘Hey, have a parade instead of a race.’ “
If Edwards hadn’t have made the move, we’d be having a whole different, much more difficult conversation.
Instead, NASCAR has another shining example of what draws people to this sport: close racing, dramatic finishes and lots of “can-you-believe-that?” instances.
True last-lap passes are what people want to talk about. Not lug nuts, councils or pit road penalties. That’s not where the authentic action is.
Busch will have a chance to “equal the score.”
It’s called intense competition.
Would Busch have done the same thing on Sunday? Of course he would.
Will he if some opportunity presents itself in the future? You bet.
Edwards knows its coming. And so do we.
That’s why people love this sport.