FORT WORTH, Texas -- Whatever you do this weekend around Texas Motor Speedway, or any time in the foreseeable future, don't accuse Carl Edwards of being "off his game," "sub-par" or anything else even borderline demeaning.

Edwards -- who closed the 2008 season with a stunning display of dominance, winning six of the final eight races in the Cup and Nationwide series combined -- has yet to win in 2009. According to Edwards, there's no need to panic.

“

It's been six [Cup] races since we've won -- I don't think we need to panic. We're fine. We've performed very well. Obviously, we'd love to have six wins, but we're fine.

”

-- CARL EDWARDS

The Cup Series, whose Samsung 500 is scheduled Sunday, has run just six races this season and the Nationwide Series runs its fifth Saturday afternoon. That means Edwards, who swept both series' 2008 season finales as he narrowly missed winning both championships, isn't in the midst of much of a losing streak.

"It's been six [Cup] races since we've won -- I don't think we need to panic," Edwards said. "We're fine. We've performed very well. For instance, last week we were the best I've ever been, speed-wise at Martinsville. I'm really proud of that. Had a flat tire and didn't finish well in the race, but we're doing fine. Obviously, we'd love to have six wins, but we're fine."

But apparently attention spans are in short supply, and so the questions came to Edwards. His words seemed irate, but if you know Edwards, it's no surprise his demeanor was as consistent as it usually is.

But when a media member said he wasn't the same Carl Edwards as a year ago, Edwards left no doubt in the matter.

"You're wrong," Edwards said. "That's not accurate at all. Results and performance are two different things. We are the same team, I am the same driver -- everything's fine."

Edwards could have been talking about Cup championship leader Jeff Gordon, though he didn't mention the driver currently in the midst of a 47-race winless streak by name.

"I think if you look at the drivers that have won no races for the last year, the drivers who have won one race in the last year or year-and-a-half [it] shows you how difficult winning races is," Edwards said. "And so it makes those seasons, like last season, seem that much more special."

A year ago, Edwards won 16 times and lost two championships by a total of 90 points.

"Literally, we could win here and win the next 10-in-a-row," Edwards said. "Or we could run second in the next 10, and the difference could be six inches in each race, and people would say, 'Wow. Why haven't you won a race?' It's been a total of five feet, you know?

"The perception is always different than the reality. It's kind of interesting. I guess my answer is, just like earlier, it's been six races since we've won. I don't think we're in any sort of trouble."

Even though he's winless this season, Edwards has four top-five finishes and leads the Nationwide standings by 114 points coming into Saturday's O'Reilly 300. His Cup stats are nowhere near as good and consequently he's eighth on that points table -- though only 48 points out of first.

And it figures the question would come up at Texas, since Edwards swept both Cup races here a year ago.

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"This track is great to us -- we've had a lot of success here, run really well, and I love coming here for a number of reasons," Edwards said. "The fans are great, the track is really fun -- the weather is always nice. It's just a cool place to come."

"[Winning three-in-a-row in Cup] would be huge. It would be really good for us right now -- it would be perfect to win a race right now."

Given his recent history, Edwards knew this weekend could be it, particularly on Sunday.

"We were a little slower than what we thought we'd be in qualifying," Edwards admitted. "It was just not quite as fast as we thought it was going to be, but that's all right. It's a 500-mile race, we run really well here and in race trim we were real fast, so it should be real good."

Edwards' on-track performances this weekend pretty much proved he's on target. He usually is at Texas, where he has three wins and seven top-five finishes in 16 career starts in the two series. He was seventh in the opening Cup practice and he qualified 13th, then he practiced fourth-quickest Saturday morning before logging the eighth-best lap Saturday afternoon in final practice.