Photo by: Ashley Dickerson, ASP Inc.
Edwards, Roush Fenway Finish Runner Up at Richmond; Shift Focus to Chase
RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 10, 2011) – Carl Edwards led 112 laps and came just short of victory in the final ‘regular season’ Sprint Cup race before the Chase cutoff point at Richmond International Raceway, finishing second to Kevin Harvick.
“Kevin (Harvick) wouldn’t give me enough room to run into him,” said Edwards after the race. “He stayed on the bottom because he said I knew I was going to hit him. I wanted to get him for Trevor last night (laughs).
“He did a good job staying on the bottom and I couldn’t get a run to get up to him at all. That was a great race. As much as I am frustrated for not winning, tonight was about remembering our heroes and what America is about. I appreciate the fans coming out here. Hopefully we bring all these troops home soon. It was a fun race and I am ready to go win this championship.”
David Ragan and Greg Biffle each entered the race needing a win to earn a wild-card spot in the field and each battled to the end, with Ragan posting a strong fourth-place finish.
“We needed to win this thing and our UPS team did a nice job,” said Ragan. “We had a race winner here if things would have fell our way. We needed about a 150 or 200-lap run and I think we would have been fine but our UPS team did a good job. We want to win every single time we come to a race track, but a top five is good.”
Biffle ran second much of the race, before finishing 13th. Matt Kenseth, who had already locked up a spot in the Chase, led 15 laps and was running fifth when a tire rub dropped him to the back of the field late; he finished 23rd.
Kenseth enters the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup seeded fourth; six points behind first place. Edwards will start the Chase fifth; nine points out of first. It marks the seventh time in eight seasons that Kenseth has qualified for the Chase. Edwards makes the field for the sixth time in seven seasons. Roush Fenway has placed 22 entries in the Chase since its inception in 2004 and at least two cars in the field in each of its eight years of existence.
Roush Fenway and the Sprint Cup Series returns to action next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, where Roush Fenway will look for its first win at the 1.5-mile track.
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