Carl Edwards' Sprint Cup Roller Coaster

Welcome to the Carl Edwards Sprint Cup Crazy Train, the newest attraction at Roush-land Amusement Park. Before boarding, realize that this ride is not for the faint of heart. Be sure to keep the lap bar down at all times, and enjoy your ride on the Carl Edwards Sprint Cup Crazy Train.

It's been an interesting couple of race weekends for Carl Edwards in the Sprint Cup Series. Winning races, cheating accusations, penalties, and a blown engine don't generally run together for a driver, so let's rewind:

Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 - Auto Club 500: Edwards takes his No. 99 to victory lane on rain-delayed Monday. The No. 99 led 64 of 250 laps for Edwards 8th-career victory at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.

Sunday, March 2, 2008 - UAW-Dodge 400: For the second week in-a-row, Edwards carries his Roush team to victory, backflip and all. It's his 9th-career victory and is a sign that Roush-Fenway Racing has made significant strides in 2008.

Hours later though, problems would arise.

Its revealed that NASCAR has found a problem with the oil tank cover on the No. 99 Ford. The part is missing and Edwards is deemed to have failed post-race inspection. The car is taken by NASCAR back to the research and development center in Concord, NC. for further examination.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - Significant Penalties: NASCAR comes down hard on Edwards & Co., taking away 100 driver points, 100 owner points, 10 bonus points, and suspending crew chief Bob Osbourne for six races. The Roush-Fenway team debates whether or not to appeal the penalty, though the admit a mistake.

Friday, March 7, 2008 - Roush Fires Back: A USA Today article runs with the head of Toyota's racing program Lee White telling the world he feels that what happened on the No. 99 was an intentional mistake. Hot under the collar, Roush fires back with technical reasons about how it happened, says that White will do (and say) anything to get ahead, and implores that he didn't intentionally cheat.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sums up garage area opinion by simply calling Roush's explanation "comical".

Sunday, March 9, 2008 - Edwards Leads, Then Blows: Carl Edwards was on his way to putting a big stamp on the critics who felt that his win at Las Vegas was now tainted by putting on an impressive performance late in the race by building a huge lead over Kyle Busch. He leads 33 laps until lap 274 -- 60 laps to go -- when his engine begins to blow up and the No. 99 heads to pit lane.

After exiting the car, Edwards puts a smile on and sarcastically humorously tells Fox that the oil cover is still on the car. Kyle Busch goes on to win Toyota's first Sprint Cup Series race.
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Without a doubt, up and down hardly begin to describe the past few weeks for Edwards, but he's got to be used to it by now.

The last time that the Sprint Cup Series rolled into Atlanta Motor Speedway, Edwards was getting bad-mouthed by nearly every driver after a weird incident with teammate Matt Kenseth after the previous race at Martinsville.

This time? It was more directed at the explanation offered by his team. Simply, the infraction that Edwards got caught with has been done time and time again to help increase downforce on the cars by several other teams in the garage, so when the Roush group tried to claim an honest mistake based around a "failed bolt" and "vibration harmonics", it made the team that laughingstock of the garage.

Obviously, a win on Sunday by Edwards would have been a nice shot in the arm for the embattled team -- especially because his car was so dominant in the later stages of the race. Instead, the racing gods must have had other plans as Edwards' engine went sour despite building such a great lead.

And to slap Jack Roush in the face cap things off? His biggest on-track nemesis, Toyota, won their first ever Sprint Cup race. In the mean time, Edwards had been first in points before his penalty from Las Vegas now finds himself 17th, 232 points behind leader Kyle Busch.

The past couple of weeks have certainly been a roller coaster of sorts for Edwards and the Roush-Fenway organization, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the team lose focus for a race or two, but he is far from out of the championship hunt.

A few strong finishes and wins will be all that the No. 99 team will need to get back on track and forget the crazy weeks that were Las Vegas and Atlanta.