Edwards takes the race, comes up short in Chase

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- He conserved the fuel. He won the race. He did the backflip. He took home the trophy. If Carl Edwards had a list of things to do on his dashboard during Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he completed the checklist by the end of 267 laps.

Carl Edwards

2008 Cup Series Ranks

	No.	Rank
Wins	9	1
Top-5s	19	1
Top-10s	27	1
Points	6,615	2

Chase Results

Johnson / Edwards

Site	Johnson	Edwards
New Hampshire	2	3
Dover	5	3
Kansas	1	2
Talladega	9	29
Charlotte	6	33
Martinsville	1	3
Atlanta	2	1
Texas	15	1
Phoenix	1	4
Homestead	15	1

He even avoided a bird that nearly flew into the cockpit during the race.

But even a trip to Victory Lane (watch video) for the ninth time this season couldn't get Edwards any closer to the hardware he coveted most. Despite winning three of the last four races and scoring the maximum number of points possible in the season finale, Edwards watched as Jimmie Johnson celebrated his third consecutive Cup Series championship.

"I'm sure glad we won [Sunday's] race because it'll make it a little bit easier to deal with the offseason and coming so close to the championship," Edwards said. "We ran really well this season and something I want my guys to understand is they did their jobs. They did a great job."

Sunday's victory gave Edwards more wins, top-fives and top-10s than any other driver in the series, but at the end, it wasn't what went right -- but what went wrong -- that made the ultimate difference.

Specifically, Edwards pointed to back-to-back races during the Chase: At Talladega, he touched off a multi-car accident and finished 29th; and at Lowe's one week later, equipment failure took several laps to repair and he wound up 33rd.

"There were two races where we lost points," Edwards said. "One was my mistake and one was a complete coincidence or freak accident with the ignition system. My guys performed well enough to win a championship this season. Considering how well Jimmie performed, I don't think that's a small feat."

In the other eight Chase races, Edwards never finished worse than fourth, winning at Atlanta, Texas and Homestead. If not for Johnson's ability to string together amazing finishes in race after race, Edwards would have easily dominated the 2008 Chase.

But even though he didn't earn the title, Edwards remained motivated by his team's ability to contend with Johnson's outfit. If anything, the No. 99 team gave Hendrick's dynasty reason to pause.

"We won more races than Jimmie and we ran with him when he won," Edwards said. "I personally feel like we closed a big gap this season. I feel like we ran very well at the road courses and Martinsville, some of the tracks where we sometimes haven't been able to pick up with him. I'm certain they'll enjoy this championship, but they knew we were here."

And Johnson certainly noticed, as his post-race comments attested.

"I want to commend Carl Edwards and the effort he put forth," Johnson said. "Those guys put a lot of pressure on us this year and they are going to be championship threats for years to come."

So for the second time in a 24-hour period, Edwards had the unusual experience of winning a race only to lose the championship by a narrow margin. On Saturday night, he captured the Nationwide Series finale, leaving him 21 points behind champion Clint Bowyer.

"Second in both series is not first, but it's definitely not something to be ashamed of," Edwards said. "I'm proud of what we did this year.

When asked about how he would celebrate Sunday night's win, he admitted he had mixed feelings.

"It's nice, knowing that we had such a big gap to close coming in here," he said. "The only way I knew we could be satisfied is if we did what we did [Sunday night] and feel like we gave it our best effort. I don't know if it's cause for celebration as much as that I feel good about what we did."

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