{"id":3819,"date":"2010-11-16T23:00:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T04:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-11-16T21:57:19","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T02:57:19","slug":"nscs-race-recap-edwards-wins-phoenix-hamlin%e2%80%99s-chase-lead-shrinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/nscs-race-recap-edwards-wins-phoenix-hamlin%e2%80%99s-chase-lead-shrinks\/","title":{"rendered":"NSCS Race Recap: Edwards Wins At Phoenix; Hamlin\u2019s Chase Lead Shrinks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AVONDALE, Ariz.(Nov. 14, 2010) \u2014 Jimmie Johnson didn\u2019t have the fastest car in Sunday\u2019s Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway \u2014 at the end of the day, race winner and polesitter Carl Edwards did.<\/p>\n

Johnson, the four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, didn\u2019t lead a lap. Denny Hamlin, ahead in the points and seeking his first title, led a race-high 190 laps.
\n
\nUltimately, none of that mattered. Short on fuel at the end of a race he had dominated, Hamlin short-pitted with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch on Lap 298 of 312, while Edwards, Johnson and Kevin Harvick were conserving fuel after pit stops under caution on Lap 224.<\/p>\n

All three won their gambles, and Hamlin, who finished 12th, saw his lead over second-place Johnson shrink from 33 points to 15 entering next Sunday\u2019s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick is third in the standings, 46 points behind Hamlin.<\/p>\n

Edwards crossed the finish line 4.77 seconds ahead of runner-up Ryan Newman to break a winless streak of 70 races, dating to Homestead in November 2008. Edwards squeezed 88 laps out of his last tank of gas to win for the 17th time in his career, completing a sweep of a weekend that also included a victory in Saturday\u2019s Nationwide Series race.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano and Greg Biffle, finished third and fourth, respectively, followed by Johnson and Harvick. Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray completed the top 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody made it on fuel \u2014 is that what you\u2019re telling me?\u201d Hamlin radioed to crew chief Mike Ford after learning he had finished 12th.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood job today, man,\u201d Ford replied. \u201cI know that was ugly. That\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we have to work on?\u201d Hamlin asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMileage was awful,\u201d Ford told him.<\/p>\n

Indeed it was. Ford told Hamlin he was 12 laps short on fuel after the pit stop on Lap 224. Contrast that to Edwards, who raced Hamlin hard and passed him for the lead on Lap 266 and made it to the end of the race despite conserving fuel for only half of the last green-flag run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure exactly what our status was,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI don\u2019t think (crew chief) Bob (Osborne) wanted to say it over the radio, or he just didn\u2019t want to tell me, but I didn\u2019t know what was going on. I thought we were 12 (laps) short, and the caution came out (on Lap 234), so I thought we were maybe six short or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when they dropped the green (on Lap 240), I started racing pretty hard, and I felt like I was a little faster than Denny, but then I realized, \u2018Maybe he\u2019s saving a little fuel, so I better save some.\u2019 So I was saving. And then Kyle was falling back even farther behind me, and I thought, \u2018OK, these guys are all saving fuel,\u2019 and then Bob started telling me lap times, so I thought, \u2018Why is he telling me lap times? Maybe he wants me to race here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to establish the fact that he wanted me to race them, so that\u2019s when I drove by Denny. \u2026 I only saved fuel for about half of that last run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as he was in gas-conservation mode inside his car, Johnson recognized the magnitude of his gamble. Failure meant the end to his hopes for a fifth title.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we ran out, yeah, we would have lost the chance to be the champions,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut that kind of left my mind, and I really started focusing on what I needed to do to save gas. Really tried to eliminate my thoughts, any negative thoughts in my mind. Just save fuel \u2026 what I needed to do on the racetrack to save fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I knew it, the laps went by pretty quick. Worked themselves down to the white flag. Once I came off of Turn 2 and down the back, I felt pretty good I\u2019d make it to the start\/finish line ahead of the 11 (Hamlin).<\/p>\n

\u201cMy emotions tried to get the best of me. I was on the edge of my seat, but I kept talking myself off the ledge.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AVONDALE, Ariz.(Nov. 14, 2010) \u2014 Jimmie Johnson didn\u2019t have the fastest car in Sunday\u2019s Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway \u2014 at the end of the day, race winner and polesitter Carl Edwards did. Johnson, the four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, didn\u2019t lead a lap. Denny Hamlin, ahead in the points and seeking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775],"class_list":["post-3819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}