Carl Edwards says “what problems” to new car critics
Sunday, April 6th, 2008 10:39pm UTC
By Charlie Turner, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
Forty two Sprint Cup drivers hated NASCAR’s experiment in stock car design after the Samsung 500 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jeff Gordon actually parked his car early – after an inevitable spin and wall wack – and insisted that crew chief Steve Letarte “fix the dang thing”. Gordon later returned to the track to taste the results of Letarte’s efforts. The leftovers weren’t much better and after a few more laps Gordon called it a day. Jeff said that they tried every possible set-up. Nothing works for the team. That is not a good sign.
Gordon’s teammate Jimmy Johnson finished second and led sixty-some laps. All-in-all that is a big improvement from recent results, but Johnson says the new car needs help. You can’t drive it in traffic, it needs more down-force. And this is a team that has tested the new car nearly every non-race day for the last two weeks. Hell, Chad – can I hear a hallelujah – Knauss is the crew chief! If they can’t figure it out ……?
Maybe Joe Gibbs Racing can. Not according to third place finisher Kyle Busch who said;
“Was it fun to drive? No. Was it hard to drive? Yes,” Busch said. “Did it survive the day? Yes. So was it a good day? Sure.”
Kyle was asked to talk further about the car and said:
“I’m not going to answer that question. Ask NASCAR that question.”
Ryan Newman finished fourth, but flunked the post-race rectal and will undoubtedly lose points, cash and crew chief attendance for a while. Presumably because they exceeded legality in the effort to fix the problems with the car. So much for the cheating solution.
The race winner was Carl “flipper” Edwards – for the third time this year. Carl doesn’t see the problem. At all. It isn’t so much that Edwards thinks that his new cars handle any better than his competitor’s rides. He just thinks the way that they are is OK. The same for everybody, a challenge to drive for sure but rewarding to master. He likes it.
NASCAR says they have no intention of making big – or even small – changes to the former CoT. That fact may make Carl Edwards the eventual champion of the first Sprint CoT Cup Series.
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Filed Under: Carl Edwards, Charlie Turner, Guest Authors, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Sprint Cup, Texas
Tagged As: Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, kyle busch, Nascar, Samsung 500, Texas Motor Speedway
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I say, shut up and drive.
Well, actually Bob Margolis did, but you get the point.