Edwards: Dale Jr. "could have wrecked me and he didn’t"
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Joey Logano tangled in a late-race, three-wide move Sunday that denied Earnhardt a good finish with what he had described as the best car he’s ever had at Sonoma Raceway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Action Sports Photography
Earnhardt was fast in both of Friday’s practice sessions, qualified 13th Saturday and methodically moved into the top-five midway through Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350.
Just after a restart on Lap 91, Earnhardt took a hard hit from Edwards and Logano pushed both into a three-wide move while battling for position.
Logano still managed to finish third, Edwards – who started on the pole – ended up fourth but Earnhardt took the brunt of the exchange and ended 11th.
“Joey got wide and it was like it hooked and he came across and I was overlapped and Dale was (next) to me,” Edwards said after the race. “Man, it was a pretty hard hit.
“I really appreciate Dale moving to try to not just spin me. I didn’t get to see him after the race. Whatever he did, it felt like he could have wrecked me and he didn’t.”
Edwards led the second-most laps in the race (24)
“I thought we had a shot to win. I had a good car,” he said. “This is the most fun I’ve had here in a long time. To finish fourth after getting involved in that big of a disaster, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Logano never led a lap but had one of the fastest cars on the track during the final 14-lap green-flag run.
“My car is hit on each corner, but it definitely was a fun race and it’s always been a fun race here at Sonoma,” Logano said. “There’s a lot of tire wear. The strategies are all confusing as all get-out. It always ends up to be a cool race at the end.”
Earnhardt wasn’t immediately available after the race but later posted the following tweets regarding the on-track incident:
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