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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Following last weekend’s thrilling finish to the Sprint Cup series race at Richmond International Raceway in which Carl Edwards bumped teammate Kyle Busch from the lead to pick up his second straight victory, the lingering question in the days leading up to this weekend’s events at Talladega Superspeedway was if the Joe Gibbs Racing duo would bury the hatchet.
According to Edwards, the two drivers have yet to speak to each other.
“No, Kyle and I have not had a chance to talk yet,” Edwards said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. “I was testing at (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) for two days. I missed the meetings. This weekend will require us to all get together as a group and work well together. I’m sure we’ll have a chance to talk.”
Busch confirmed Sunday at Talladega during the pre-race telecast that he and Edwards still have yet to clear the air, replying to FOX Sports analyst Kenny Wallace‘s question about the situation with a simple, “No.”
Much was made of the move that saw Edwards nudge his teammate Busch, the reigning series champion, up the track in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap to beat him by .675 seconds on the Virginia short track.
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Was it clean? Was it dirty? Should it matter that they’re teammates? Should it matter that they’re both already virtually locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup by virtue of their early-season wins?
(A NASCAR.com poll revealed that 76 percent of our readers deemed it a clean, racing move, for what it’s worth.)
But it all boils down to how the pair — who’ve been racing against each other full-time for over a decade, but have been teammates for just over a year — will handle things moving forward, both on and off the track.
Busch was understandably terse in his post-race press conference at Richmond on Sunday, deflecting questions about the incident and instead noting how good of a car his team gave him.
The two-time 2016 race winner has yet to offer any comment since.
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