Edwards' crash takes out teammates and Chasers

Pushes Biffle too hard creating 11-car pileup in final laps

By Raygan Swan, NASCAR.COM
October 5, 2008
09:23 PM EDT

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Standing outside the trackside medical center, the tension between Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards was palpable; their faces were sullen.

Edwards caused Talladega Superspeedway's infamous Big One with 14 laps to go collecting teammates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle as well as three other Chase drivers.

Carl didn't mean to do it, it wasn't his fault. He caused it, but he was just trying to help and he pushed me all the way down the back and did everything he could to help.

-- GREG BIFFLE-Dejected, Edwards was all apologies however Kenseth was silent. Greg Biffle was sympathetic, but no less upset.

"Carl didn't mean to do it, it wasn't his fault. He caused it, but he was just trying to help and he pushed me all the way down the back and did everything he could to help," Biffle said. "We knew we were probably going to wreck here, because we've been in so many wrecks before."

Recounting the wreck from his vantage point, Kenseth said Edwards turned Biffle and he pulled his No. 17 Ford as far left as he could but was unable to miss the wreck. Kenseth looked up and saw the nose of Biffle's car pointed at his door.

"You knew it was going to be crazy, but I actually felt like we were almost home free. Biffle got wiped out and he wiped me out somehow," said Kenseth, who finished 26th while Biffle finished 24th and Edwards came home 29th.

Uncertain if his No. 16 Ford was moving down or if Edwards' No. 99 was moving up, Biffle explained, "Maybe when he came down to push a little bit it just instantly slid. I had my foot in the gas and it just spun the tires and went around and that's all she wrote."

Heading into Sunday's Amp Energy 500, Edwards was admittedly nervous but confident he would execute the right strategy with the help of his crew chief Bob Osborne.

Playing it safe for most of the race, he ran mid-to-back of the pack. Edwards was running his own race. Aside from a spin on pit road, he and Osborne were seemingly on their way to a clean run.

With about 20 laps to go, Edwards was ready to make a move although it may have been a much too aggressive move in hindsight.

Trying to push Biffle to the front, Edwards spun the No. 16 machine entering Turn 3 causing a chain reaction smash-up that took out 11 cars -- five of which were Chase drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Edwards admitted he could've backed off Biffle's bumper slightly in Turn 3, but he thought he could get Biffle clear of [race winner] Tony Stewart.

"You do the best you can to move as far forward as possible. I was just pushing Greg as hard as I could. It's my fault and I apologize to everybody caught up in that wreck. We just got in exactly the wrong spot there going into [Turn] 3 and [Biffle] got real loose and that was just the way it went," Edwards said. "It's my fault."

Two weeks ago at Dover International Speedway the Roush Fenway Racing drivers stole the show and finished 1-2-3. Biffle won the first two Chase races of the season. That said, Talladega is the proclaimed "wild card" race of the Chase and is known for producing heart-breaking moments.

Plus, Roush Fenway Racing, historically, has performed poorly at Talladega, according to team owner Jack Roush.

"We've won twice here in 22 years with multiple cars," Roush said. "We don't have much of an average."

As for Edwards' strategy and execution in the draft, Roush said, "Carl wound up pushing harder on Greg than he could stand. NASCAR had set that up by allowing people to push all day. It was real clear to me and I think it was clear to everybody, including Carl, that if you weren't willing to push the car in front of you, then you couldn't advance as well as somebody else would that was doing the pushing. But he pushed too hard ..."

Edwards managed to maintain his second-place position in the Chase; Biffle held on to third and Kenseth remains in the ninth position.

Still, the Roush Fenway Racing Fords had the power to win -- David Ragan was proof of that. He finished third, the second-year driver's best finish at Talladega.

"I felt like we had a car that could have won and basically there at the end I just didn't have any teammates. For that matter, we didn't have any Fords on the racetrack, I think, so I was kind of at my own mercy," Ragan said.

Edwards, who arguably just tried too hard, might feel the same way.

"I was worried about the idiots here," he lamented, "and I was the guy that caused that one."