Of recent years the chase/playoffs have been heavily criticized by fans as of 2020 because of not using the "Winston" Cup format because of the champion being crowned apparantly not deserving to be champ and the entire season didn't matter anymore. Trust me the whole season still does matter and Carl Edwards can testify this statement after his 2011 season. In the end of 2008 Carl Edwards finished of a breakout season at Homestead with his 9th win of the year. But after that he fell off the cliff in 2009 with an 11th place points finish. 2010 however he finished 4th in the standings winning the final 2 races after going through a 70 race winless streak being the best of the rest of the chase drivers that weren't in the championship hunt. So in 2011 he and the Roush Fenway 99 team looked like a favorite for the title in 2011. It began with the Daytona 500 with the main thing that needed to be done was survive, 16 cautions just made it almost a war of attrition race to keep your racecar as clean and undamaged as possible which Edwards did and now he's in a great position to win NASCAR's biggest race.

Despite coming up short of a Daytona 500 win he would gain the points lead because Trevor Bayne pledged his points to the Xfinity series. Heading to Phoenix Carl really felt good about his car believing that he could go out and win. He start from the pole but immediately lost the lead but like Carl thought he still had a amazing car leading 21 laps early 59 laps. Sadly Edwards would have to settle for a 28th place finish 60 laps down after Kyle Busch got loose coming off turn 2 knocking the 99 off the track on the curb and in the grass that damaged his front end then officially sent him into the wall in turn 3. The disappointment was real for the Missouri native who somewhat felt like he just randomly got wrecked but as Kyle said in his post race interview that was not the case just him losing control of his 18 Toyota and unfortunately Edwards was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 99 was thrown back to a tie with 5 time defending champion Jimmie Johnson 12th in points on the chase bubble. At Las Vegas Carl felt like he had another car just as good as the previous race and ran in the top 5 and 10 for most of the first half. He would get lead for the first time on lap 150 when Tony Stewart had a stop and go for removing equipment from the pit box, in this case the gas can. This allowed the 99 to show his muscle leading laps until Stewart took 2 tires on lap 199. Clearly it was gonna be a duel between the 99 and 14 in the final laps. Knowing that Edwards couldn't win in a head to head fight crew chief Bob Osborne decided to take 2 tires to get the lead when the 14 took 4 tires. The call would work for victory! Carl Edwards gets his 19th win in his 232nd Cup series race and his 2nd at Las Vegas! That had to feel good especially after Phoenix feeling like he could have won and coming 2nd at Daytona. Edwards got up to 3rd in points after race number 3 7 points behind Stewart. Carl followed the win up with a 2nd in Bristol, 6th at Fontana, and 18th in Martinsville and 3rd at Texas. Going into Talladega he held a 9 point lead over Kyle Busch. In Talladega obviously the draft is key to winning but this season at restrictor plates its evolved to the 2 car tandem being the way around. Edwards worked with Ambrose. They got up to the front and looked like they could just go to the front at their own pace. But 9 got involved in a wreck at lap 90 meaning Carl had to find another partner to work with. Luckily his teammate Greg Biffle lost his original wingman so two of the Roush Fenway Racing Fords could work together. As the laps continued to wind down they worked to the lead pack late to be able to contend for the win.

My oh my things can change so fast! Just 1,000 more yards and Edwards would have had that win. But he came up just short in 6th place. At Richmond he started 8th and fell back to 20th after being put 3 wide but drove up to top 10 and eventually 5th. Onwards to Darlington he fell from his 4th starting spot to the top 10 after a tight car. Edwards was complaining that his splitter was hitting the track but adjustments were made and still a long way to go in the 500 mile race. He proved that slowly got to top 5 with a winning caliber car. Then he lead some laps here and there and was close enough to be in contention. With few laps left he was right behind the dominant Red Bull Toyota of Kasey Kahne and made his move with 27 laps to go. The race looked like it was won until a caution came out late bringing most of the field to pit road. Edwards took 2 tires which won him the race off pit road and would restart 4th behind Regan Smith, Brad Keselowski, and Tony Stewart with 5 to go. The 99 got up to 2nd when the final caution came out setting up a green white checkered. Edwards does have some impressive wins like at Bristol, Atlanta and Dover all challenging races but none are in crown jewel races. Crown jewel races are races ALL drivers want to win which are the Brickyard 400, Coca Cola 600, Southern 500, and the Daytona 500 is the biggest one of them all. Edwards came up just short at Daytona and doesn't plan on coming up short at the Southern 500 especially recently welcoming his son Michael into the world.

57 laps lead out of those 370 and Edwards is a bridesmaid once again but as you heard late in that video he was one of the first drivers to congratulate him, such a nice guy. Anyway I mentioned he has won at Dover before which was in 2007. He started getting the nickname "Concrete Carl" for being so fast across the concrete racetracks NASCAR held races at. But Dover was also 5 time defending champion Jimmie Johnson's playground and they were the 2 fastest cars of the day leading a total of 324 laps out of the 400, 117 of them from Edwards. But you know where he finished? 7th after choosing to pit late and couldn't get back up through the traffic. Edwards has shown some strong speed in the still relatively young season with a win, 6 top 5s, 9 top 10s. It can kinda be annoying sometimes coming up short but the wins will come with time as often as they put themself in position to win. Winning will be all that matters in this non points race, the All star race! A race that is all about bragging rights and the winner could win as much as $1,000,000! Because of Edwards 2 wins in the previous seasons he automatically qualified for the big event. He began 4th and would play 2nd fiddle to his teammate Biffle early on but that 99 was fast and in the next part of the race he was the car to beat and in fact the All Star Race was split into 4 segments and like I said Edwards was 2nd fiddle in the first segment but the next 2 segments he was the top driver which won him 50 grand. All that was left is the final 10 lap dash to the final and he has to hold off NASCAR'S best to claim his first All star win!

Maybe some of the $1,203,000 can go to fixing that racecar lol! Edwards usually doesn't do burnouts and like you saw celebrates with a backflip but the ONE time he tries to do some burnouts it backfires hahaha! At least he won the race and wrecked instead of losing and wrecking. Plus Edwards said in his interview afterwards that Bob Osborne has a FASTER car ready for the 600 which could be bad news for the field. That was the case early on leading 61 of the first 75 laps, still was able to keep himself in the top 5 for most of the first half. But as the sun went down so did his performance, he got stuck in traffic and just lost the handle of his car to struggle on for 16th. At Kansas he bounced back to 5th, halfway through the regular season and he has a 104 point lead over the 11th place driver Denny Hamlin. In previous seasons that wouldn't be a lot but now its simply 1 point per position so that's 2 and a half races ahead of the wild card spots that were new to 2011. Wild cards are 2 drivers with the most wins from positions 11th-20th so Edwards is looking good and wants to keep the momentum going. Sadly at Pocono he finished 37th a bad valve in cylinder head sidelined him literally for 141 laps. They got back out on track with like 3 laps left in the race but they wanted to finish so good for them. Michigan is definitely a place where Ford strives off success with 31 Cup victories the most out of any manufacturer so a win is absolutely something that is highly on the cards considering they were looked as the favorites. Edwards began from 23rd and slowly made his way up through the field as a couple of his teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth the 2003 champion were dominant along with Kyle Busch off Joe Gibbs Racing. On a restart with 36 to go Edwards made a bold 4 move to get the lead and with fuel being a possible issue he looked set to win. A caution with 9 laps left to go brought the field to pit road so fuel isn't a problem anymore, however on the restart he couldn't replicate his bold move and has to settle for 5th. At Sonoma Bob Osborne simply was relying on fuel mileage to have a good result because the car was just plain bad in handling. But some good strategy did flip flop them to get a 3rd, a great job especially when Edwards was scheduled to run an Xfinity race the day before but chose not to go and grind it out. Next was Daytona where he came so close to winning the biggest Cup race of the season, based on that and coming a few yards short at Talladeg this looked like the time to get the 2nd victory of 2011. The 99 was fast early on working with his wingman Greg Biffle and just when he tried to get the lead Edwards spun around and hit the wall damaging his Ford Fusion. 37th was all he could salvage from there and actually lost the points lead to Kevin Harvick. While Carl did have a VERY healthy margin to 11th it's just needing to capitalize on moments to win and claim more bonus points for a better starting position when the chase for the championship in the last 10 races begin. He said that was motivation for them going to Kentucky for the inaugural Cup race there saying if the chase started right now they wouldn't be leading so a 5th was definitely encouraging heading to Loudon with an experimental setup trying to learn about what they needed when they return to this place later cause this is where the 2nd race of the chase takes place. For the most part it was a disappointment though being stuck in traffic most of the race and even with good strategy Edwards feel to 13th to have enough gas to make it to the checkered flag. Indianapolis was up next, the place known as "The Brickyard" was a crown jewel race and he wanted to win here for Jack who never won a race here but didn't really have the winning speed and has to settle with a 14th. Carl then finished 7th in Pocono and
Watkins Glen celebrated his 32nd birthday with a 12th place finish. An average finish for sure now losing the points lead to Kyle Busch. Still he has a 118 point lead over 11th place so now comes Michigan one of Carl's best race tracks and one of Roush's best race tracks meaning this could be the time the 2nd victory of the season finally arrives to give the 99 more bonus points cause he hardly has any cause of his only win of the year coming in Las Vegas. Early on he struggled then mechanical problems under the hood made him loose 29 laps and finish 36th. But on the more positive side of things at Bristol an 8th place finish is enough to officially clinch a spot in the chase and while some think the 99 lost some of their mojo Edwards says that Bob Osborne and Roush Fenway Racing is working on some research and development (R&D) to bring their best for the championship chase. In the penultimate regular season race at Atlanta he got 5th which was his first top 5 since Kentucky which was cool especially going to Richmond in the regular season finale. Yellow was a popular color that race especially since it came out a total of 15 times with 5 in the first 52 laps. The whole race is 400 laps long so it looked to be a long night in a attrition race. In the first pitstop at lap 60 the 99 took 2 tires to gain some track position from his 8th starting spot. Then it seemed from there that his car got faster and faster then at lap 202 he got the lead from the race dominator Kevin Harvick. Carl would lead the next 113 laps of the race until the 29 got back past him on a restart but as the run went longer fuel became a problem but Edwards needed to save 10 laps of gas but luckily one last caution put it out of mind and give Edwards a chance to win the race.

While coming up short to the win can be disappointing since his only points paying win was the 3rd race of the year in Las Vegas this is the first time in a while that Edwards showed race winning type speed so now the first 26 races of the 2011 season are complete and the chase has been set. The 12 drivers that will compete for the championship start off like this;

Tied for 1st is the 29 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick for Richard Childress Racing
and the 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch because they had the most wins out of everyone else. All the top 10 drivers in points that have won will get 3 bonus points for each win they got meaning Kevin and Kyle have 2,012.
3rd is 4 time champion Jeff Gordon in the 24 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports 3 points behind,
4th position belongs to the 2003 Cup champion in the 17 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing Matt Kenseth 6 points off of 1st place.
The following is a 4 way tie for 5th place all with 1 victory so far. Kurt Busch the 2004 Cup champion in the 22 Team Penske Dodge, Carl Edwards in the 99 Ford for Roush Fenway, Ryan Newman in the 39 Chevy for Stewart Haas Racing and the man who has won the last 5 time championships in a row Jimmie Johnson in the 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
Now 2 of the last 4 drivers didn't win races which are a couple of big names in the NASCAR garage. One of them is the most popular driver and the son of 7 time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt is the guy behind the wheel of the 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and made his first chase appearance since 2008, Dale Earnhardt Jr. And the other driver is known as a hothead of sorts who began racing in the IndyCar series and in fact won the 1997 IndyCar championship. In 1999 Stewart became the rookie of the year and would eventually become a 2 time series champion in 2002 and 2005 and claiming 33 wins. But at the end of 2008 after spending his whole Cup life with Joe Gibbs he joins forces with a backmarker Gene Haas team and become a co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing. After most thought it was a big mistake he would win 6 races in his own 14 car from 2009-2010. After somewhat thinking his team didn't belong in the chase the man known as "smoke" was able to grind his way into championship eligibility. Folks that driver of the 14 Stewart Haas Chevy is Tony Stewart. So those are the top 10 drivers in points in the chase now let's meet the other 2. New change this year was the wild card where the 2 drivers that have the most wins in positions 11-20 would get in the chase but have no bonus points. Its almost a tale of 2 seasons for these two drivers, one driver was looking like he was in the top of his game along with his whole team but after coming up short in 2010 championship battle they have had a rough season but still with a victory in Michigan was enough to push the 11 Toyota team for Joe Gibbs Racing in the chase, Denny Hamlin. The other seems to have a breakout season or at least a breakout summer winning 3 of the last 14 races while also getting 8 top 10s in that span seemed like he and his crew were clicking at the right time. Shockingly in 2010 after his first full season and a 25th place points finish NOBODY thought he would be this good but after a change over at Team Penske and bringing over a lot of the crew he won the 2010 Xfinity series championship and a number change with the 2 Dodge is better than ever being piloted by Brad Keselowski. So brief recap the points look like this.
1st (29) Kevin Harvick 2012
1st (18) Kyle Busch 2012
3rd (24) Jeff Gordon 2009
4th (17) Matt Kenseth 2006
5th (22) Kurt Busch 2003
5th (99) Carl Edwards 2003
5th (39) Ryan Newman 2003
5th (48) Jimmie Johnson 2003
9th (2) Brad Keselowski 2000
9th (11) Denny Hamlin 2000
9th (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr 2000
9th (14) Tony Stewart 2000

With all that being said let the chase begin! It all starts at Chicago amd Carl Edwards has a brand new car and qualified it 5th and ran there early but then showed his muscle early on in the race getting a bonus point for leading. Now of course he would love to lead the most laps and win to get the maximum 48 points in each race. After leading 39 it looked like it was heading that way for Carl but after falling to 2nd because Newman took 2 tires then in a restart on lap 150 Tony Stewart made a bold move that made Edwards fall back to 5th and then the 99 had an even worse restart about 12 laps later. Eventually he was able to get it together and work his way back up to the top 10 and you know what? Let's add fuel mileage to the equation cause WhY NoT? One of Carl's strengths definitely worked to his advantage while some ran out he was about to make it to the finish line with fuel still in the tank to start the chase with a 4th place. This meant he was able to leave the windy city 3rd in points 10 behind Kevin Harvick. A good start for sure with the 1st of 10 chase races done but there is still a long way to go including one of his worst tracks Loudon. While it's known as the "Magic mile" the magic its done to Edwards is a 14.4 average  finish and 2 top 10s in 14 starts. This is definitely towards the very top of worst tracks but so early in the chase at this point he just needed to do his best and survive at a place which isn't the easiest to overtake on meaning strategy is important. Did I say strategy? Yep it came into play again staring the one and only FUEL MILEAGE! Cause that is really been one of the themes in 2011 which is good for the 99 who is great at saving fuel. In the end after different pit sequences and saving fuel Edwards got to the finish line 8th. Fuel has shown its face for the first 2 chase races by drastically changing the outcome. In this case Carl fell to 4th in the standings 14 points behind the 14 of Tony Stewart. I know he lost ground but again this is one of his worst tracks so I think that whole Jack Roush crew will take it and run. Now there is another mile track on the horizon which for Edwards and company they might call the third chase race their magic mile but others call it the monster mile aka Dover. In the spring race the 99 was in first place for 117 laps and given the fact that this is one of his best racetracks things looked up for the Roush Fenway Racing crew. He backed that up early aiming to lead the most laps this time leading 116 of the first 176 laps but the 5 time defending champion Jimmie Johnson wants to throw down a challenge and gets the lead from Edwards. It appeared like it was going to be a duel between them for most of the race like the spring right? Well Carl speeding exiting pit road under green flag pitstops are going to hurt those plans. He got trapped a lap down. So now he went from fighting for the win to fighting to get a decent finish. First he is gonna need to be the first car a lap down in time for a caution which is what he did about 45 laps after his initial speeding penalty. Now he has the last 95 laps to climb from 21st and also, because he is the lucky dog he has to restart behind the whole field. That didn't stop Carl in his recovery drive back to have a shot for 2nd but ultimately got 3rd. The next week Carl would say so far that this is was one of if not his best performances of the year as he now is tied with Kevin Harvick for the points lead as they lead Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart by 9 points. And speaking of next week the 4th chase race was at a place that Edwards deemed his hometown track, Kansas. Even though Edwards was from Columbia Missouri this track is the closest so there you have it. He wants to win here more than any other track on the circuit and would mean more to him than if he won the Daytona 500 which is the biggest race in NASCAR Cup racing, AND remember he almost won down there earlier in February so that's a lot to compare it to. Part of it was his family and friends always coming down to see him race so obviously you want to do well for them. In fact this year the Missouri mayor came to Kansas to wish Carl good luck. Besides he only finished outside the top 10 twice in his Cup career and with a 2nd place starting spot who knows this could be his day right? NOPE! Goodness gracious that 99 Ford fell like a rock outside the top 10 and even got lapped in the race. Yeah that was frustrating when you struggle in front of your family and friends ESPECIALLY when battling for a championship and today is gonna hurt big time as no matter what the adjustments didn't seem to work. But with a big stroke of luck Carl was able to get his lap back with 52 laps to go and was actually able to pass cars. Yep his car was J-U-N-K JUNK! He struggled that bad but shockingly he got to 5th. Carl instantly said he felt like he just won the race and I quote "I thought we'd be lucky to finish 20th" it was THAT bad but somehow someway the car improved a tiny bit and Carl done found a way to 5th and KEEP his points lead, technically extending it by 1 point over Harvick but the heat is still on. The top 8 are separated by 20 points which can easily be lost if they have a strong race and you struggle. Going to Charlotte Edwards initially was fast in the 600 mile race earlier this season but fell late and can't afford to finish in the teens with the tough competition he has. This time he was able to have an uneventful race being in the top 10 and get to 3rd. Still despite another great run he could only extend his lead to 5 over Harvick which is not much at all especially when you are going to what all the championship contenders call a wild card track. This track has altered the championship in many ways and makes the contenders lose sleep at night and just simply want to get the race over with. This everyone is Talladega, here partners are essential to run well especially in this 2 car tango style racing for 2011 but one thing that hasn't changed is people's methods to avoid getting in the big wreck. Either go to the front or hang out at the back. Carl chose to hang in the back along with some of his fellow chasers. If the phrase "better safe than sorry" was a thing Carl and his teammate Greg Biffle have shown it in this race. As the race wounded down and intensity increased along with wrecks they always pitted to make sure they didn't run over debris cause in a fight between something sharp and a tire the sharp thing always wins. They even pitted before the last restart and the intensity was at an all time high, did they stay there too long? Will they make it out with a good finish? Could they even win in some kind of Talladega madness?? Well it wasn't a win but it was an average 11th place whic compared to some of his rivals was very good. Now with 4 races left in the season Carl leads by 14 points over new 2nd place driver teammate Matt Kenseth. After this Martinsville is definitely the opposite of Talladega, Martinsville is nicknamed the "paper clip" for its appearance overhead but is is a half mile short track full of bumper to bumper and close quarters. Out of all the tracks left this is also one of the worst for the 99, good luck has struck once more with qualifying rained out gifting him the pole on a silver platter. Knowing how valuable leading a lap was he raced hard early on to get the lead and eventually would lead 28 laps which is the most he would ever lead at this track in his whole career. And seeing him getting lapped out on track shows that this isn't his cup of tea. Part of it was strategy but a lot was an ill handling racecar but yeah another typical Martinsville day for Carl Edwards being stuck in the middle of the field. Yet fate wasn't done with Carl yet with a free pass on lap 258 of 500 to get him back on the lead lap but still his Ford wasn't good enough just to fall a lap down later which made it look like his competitors were gonna catch up but he got the lucky dog once again about 150 laps later. Still Carl had to battle and claw his way through for every point he could grab which is harder at one of his weakest tracks but with all of the madness that race was with 18 cautions in the race which is a lot he got his way back up to 9th. This just seems like another case where he didn't run good at the start or in the middle of the race he is at his best when the checkered flag falls which leaves him 8 points ahead of Tony Stewart who won the race which sparked a rivalry for the championship right then between the two when Tony said in victory that Carl should be worried about the 14 and that the next 3 weeks wouldn't be easy. Edwards then said that he welcomes the challenge and looks forward to it and the words back and forth continued when Tony said it isn't a challenge that he was foreshadowing what he was gonna do. Edwards responded then that he thought Tony should be more worried about who's behind because he thought they'd have a better shot of running better than the 14 at Texas where Carl has had his fair share of good runs to. Well they both ran well and were in the top 6 all race but the 14 as the track cooled down after the first 1/3 of the race his performance elevated while the 99 was still around and even at one point got the lead but Stewart was having none of that and drove to the win once again leading the most laps however Carl didn't let him out of his sight and swiftly followed to 2nd but his points lead shrunk from 8 down to 3 which Tony reiterated that he is a threat and if anyone still underestimates him (particularly Carl) they are making a huge mistake. Mistakes cant be made now this late into the season especially with a new twist thrown into the penultimate race at Phoenix. It got reconfigured and repaved after late February. It was a whole unknown with fresh pavement usually provides chaos which occurred in the Xfinity race. Carl participated in that race so will his extra time out on track help him beat his championship foe? Well at the start Edwards fell back to 7th Stewart was going to the front and lead the race. Still crew chief Bob Osborne was very good at adjusting the car to improve it and improve he did now was battling for the lead with Tony and even the 17. Carl knew he needed to get a bonus point with Smoke leading lots of laps so on a restart he took advantage of a mistake made by Matt Kenseth. After that though Stewart was the fastest car yet the 99 was giving lots of pressure to the 14. I'm the final green flag stretch to the finish Edwards showed his muscle while Smoke lost a little speed. 1 last stop needed to be made in the race though for fuel while tires didn't mean that much. The 99 had the lead when the cycle started but lost it after possibly getting stuck in some traffic before pitting, at least it wasn't to Stewart who finished 3rd while Edwards didn't win he did get 2nd which left things even steven with Tony who was still 3 points behind after back to back races leading the most laps. It all comes down to this final race with the top 2 chasers to battle it out in the finale, 12 chasers originally were contenders but couldn't keep up. Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman just plain didn't have the speed most of the time and Dale Earnhardt Jr was kind of the same but started off with a 3rd in Chicagoland and was running just outside the top 10 until

Then at Dover he had loose wheels and bad luck which took the wind out of his championship contending sails. His teammate Jeff Gordon looked like he would be one of the favorites and was still considered a contender but Kansas after running so well would end up doing in his drive for 5

Gordon would also spin late at Charlotte to add salt to the wounds. Unfortunately for Hendrick Motorsports none of their drivers would win the title including the 5 time champion Jimmie Johnson.

After a sluggish start to the chase people were counting him out but a 2nd in Dover after leading the most laps and a dominanting win in Kansas the 48 was set to prove the doubters wrong but that visious Charlotte crash would end the championship streak for Johnson. Talladega ruined a lot of champions hopes as well like to Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

Let's not forget about Kyle's brother Kurt who also couldn't avoid trouble for the whole race.

Then Martinsville with Matt Kenseth and the hits continued to come for the 18.

Also after this in a Truck race at Texas Kyle would hit to this point the lowest of rock bottom moments in his carrer after getting parked from the Cup race for wrecking a championship contender and ultimately destroying it. But this small moment in the finish of the Martinsville madness was the last nail in the coffin for Brad Keselowski.

It was that moment to that seemed to change for Tony Stewart who let's not forget said that his team wasn't good enough to compete in the chase who won Chicago and Loudon to start off and while he cooled off a little he still wasn't considered a real threat and like mentioned earlier in victory lane after struggling and litterally almost getting lapped at one point to pull that win off said "He better be worried that's all I got to say. He isn't gonna have an easy 3 weeks." It hasn't been east and all the work comes down to the final race. A place that has been magical to both drivers who have either won races like Carl has done or being crowned champion twice the way Tony Stewart was in 2002 and 2005. Time to tell the season finale of 2011 folks this is Homestead! The 99 is gonna start from pole while the 14 is gonna start from 15th at what Edwards calls his best racetrack and he proved it with leading early on while Tony had a big hole in his nose after Kurt Busch's car broke down with a transmission faliure putting him in the back of the pack for repairs. However his team noticed it on pit road and they got to work and fixed it but the confidence for Stewart wasn't broken "They're gonna feel like (expletive) after we kick their (expletive) after this." That's what Stewart said after driving from 40th place up to 25th but on his way there he might have been a little too eager now damaging the left front fender which only delayed the inevitable for Tony to drive from 32nd to the top 10 and while the 99 was leading Bob Osborne told his driver some news he preferred not to hear with the limit as far as tire wear is concerned has been reached. The right front tire had a big split on the edge from high wear so that can't be a good feeling but with that in mind things were still mostly smooth by lap 108 with Edwards leading while Stewart is now 5th. But then rain came to halt the race for a halftime break of sorts. Allowing teams to regroup while the sun sets to finish this thing under the lights, the conditions do usually change from temperature but Edwards was still good but you know who was also good? Tony Stewart. He got a good restart after the rain delay to get to the lead which is the last thing Car wanted see but the 99 was still fast on track and in the pits maintaining track position while Stewart's crew did have a couple of missed but Smoke was keeping his crew's spirits up saying they've overcame being further back before so they have all the time in the world. Obviously Carl would feel good with his rival behind him to win the championship but Smoke has no quit in him

LOOK AT THAT. At this point he is driving that car with pure determination and will power but still got ahead of Carl which might seem worrying but remember he had a worn out right side tire and was reminded to not take any unnecessary risks and Carl was as calm as he can be, does he have some extra speed in his pocket? If so he can use it to his advantage which he would do as the closing stages approached Carl was leading Tony. 62 to go Edwards pitted under green but surprisingly Stewart stayed out. Why? To try to go to the end with only 1 stop! This is huge, if Tony runs out like he did in Texas once it could cost him the championship! But if it goes like the first two chase races it could be what wins it for the 14. Coasting around now trying to get to 55 to go which is as far as he could go on 1 tank of gas and Stewart pitted right with 55 to go giving the lead to Edwards as the rain returns! Oh boy now the instant question is if it will tain out or not? If not Carl still needed to pit but the shower was very brief so the 99 pitted with most of the field which brings up a dilemma cause he is 5 laps short from making it to the finish if it restarts. Can he save enough gas? Or will the rain end the race? If so Stewart is 4th and Edwards is 6th so the 99 would be the champion. As each lap goes by under yellow the mist made the track a little slick nut when it stopped it hit 37 to go with a restart on our hands. The following video is long but I promise you every second is worth it, I've rambled enough now currently at 6569 words I'm gonna let the video speak for itself to find out who will the 2011 champion will be!

Things for the worse would change for Roush Fenway however, they would since not finish this high in the championship standings. The competitive quality of their cars were still strong till 2015 and have struggled to even be in the top 20 at times during certain tracks. It makes many wonder like "The Iceberg" What if Edwards would won 1 more race? What if he had gained only 1 more position in ANY of the final 10 races? What if in 2011 Carl Edwards had captured his missing ring? Or even the smallest things like if Hometown got rained out with that last caution? What if Stewart gained 1 less position in the chase? Or What might have been for Carl Edwards?