Have Fuel, Will Travel: Edwards wins at Pocono

Carl Edwards notched his fourth Sprint Cup Series win of the season on Sunday at the Pocono Raceway, thanks to a mid-race call to hit pit road prior to a rain delay. Once the rain moved out of the area and the pitstops cycled through, Edwards found his way back into the lead and into Victory Lane at Pocono for the second time in his career.

While celebrating the strategic win, Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne revealed that during the red flag for the rain, the two got into a heated argument, questioning the impending weather and the decision to come to pit road.

“My deal was, I felt like, he left it to me a little bit,” Edwards explained. “What got to me — Jimmie (Johnson), they’d committed to coming — (and) I was like, ‘Well, we'll go ahead and come.’ But, if I would have said stay out, that's what we would have done. I
think we were both about 51 percent on the ‘come in’ side and neither one of us were going to argue.

“The argument came from when it started raining real hard, then we were trying to blame one another for the idea of coming. He said it was my idea. I really felt like it was his idea. That's where the argument came. I had to leave the pit box because I was worried Bob was going to like, punch me in the neck, or something."

Added Osborne, “It was a little stressful at moments. You know, the rain comes. We’re not sure what we wanted to do. We talked about what we would do if the rain cleared up and they got the track dry. That's what we ended up doing. Then it started raining harder. Carl's on the pit box with me, and we're arguing at that point why we did what we did.”

The first half of the event was dominated by Edwards and pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson and on lap 110 Edwards slid by Johnson for the lead just as green flag pit stops began. On lap 119, both Edwards and Johnson made their way down pit road, but by lap 122 Edwards was back out front. And then came the rain. On lap 126 the yellow flag was displayed due to the precipitation. And then came the eventual, race-winning call.

Edwards’ Ford was the first in a string of lead lap cars, including Johnson’s Chevrolet, that hit pit road for another round of stops. Edwards and Johnson elected to take on two tires while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took fuel only.

Kasey Kahne's Dodge was the first to stay on track, inheriting the lead.

The field stayed on track making laps but the rain got heavier, forcing the red flag to be displayed for a little over 40 minutes. Much to the dismay of Kahne and technical director Kenny Francis, the rain subsided and racing resumed. Edwards, Johnson and the other early leaders who selected to pit prior to the rain were then trapped near the end of the field. They weren't given much time to reclaim the lost track position, with a caution flag falling on lap 138 after Joe Nemechek and Paul Menard wrecked.
 
Under the yellow, rain once again began to fall but this time, the showers promptly passed through and the cars remained on the track under pace laps.

With 46 laps to go, race leader Kahne and outside pole-sitter Mark Martin dropped down pit road for four fresh tires. As the stops cycled around, Edwards reclaimed the lead with 36 laps remaining but two laps later made his final stop of the day.

While Edwards and the group of leaders who chose to pit prior to the red flag were finished with their stops, Kahne and those who chose to stay on track were not.

The race stayed green and with 15 laps to go, Kahne relinquished the top spot for a two-tire stop and fuel. Martin followed two laps later, handing the lead back to Edwards.

With six laps remaining Edwards’ shot-caller, Osborne, warned his driver to slow the No. 60 Ford in order to save fuel.

Four laps later, with two laps to go, points leader Kyle Busch ran out of fuel while running fifth and pulled his Toyota onto pit road.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Johnson, Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon ran out of fuel heading towards the finish line.

Tony Stewart finished second, with Johnson coasting to third.

Kevin Harvick was involved in a run-in on lap 1, which brought out the first caution flag, but recovered and notched a solid fourth-place finish. David Ragan closed out the top 5.

Clint Bowyer finished sixth with gamblers Kahne and Martin taking the seventh and eighth positions.

“We were going for the win,” Kahne said of the pit calls. “If it keeps on raining, we win. It didn’t and we got seventh. We took a chance and it just didn’t work out like we wanted it to. We still got a top 10 and had one of the best cars out there today.”

Jamie McMurray and Gordon rounded out the top 10.

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