Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Aflac Ford, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
On paper, any team that finishes any NASCAR Sprint Cup race with cars in third, fifth and 10th place ought to be reasonably happy, right?
Wrong.
Following the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Roush Fenway Racing drivers Greg Biffle (third), Matt Kenseth (fifth) and Carl Edwards (10th) were all livid, and understandably so, as poor pit work cost each of the drivers legitimate chances at victory.
For Biffle and Edwards, especially, the bottom line was that pit-road miscues cost them the race. Sound like a harsh assessment? It’s true.
Collectively, the three Roush Fenway drivers led 148 laps or nearly half the race. All three have previously won Cup races at TMS, and Edwards swept both events at the 1.5-mile track last year. Coming into this event, the team had won seven of the first 16 Cup races at the 1.5-mile track and was heavily favored to win again.
And then pit road mistakes bit them.
Biffle, who led 93 laps on the day, lost the lead for good during a caution period that began on Lap 221 for oil on the track, and Kenseth’s crew botched one of his stops, too. But the real calamity occurred during sixth and final caution of the day, when David Stremme spun in Turn 4 to bring the yellow out on Lap 305.
Under yellow, Edwards entered the pits with the lead, but he emerged 11th, which killed any prayer he might have had of fighting with Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who ultimately finished 1-2.
And when you figure in the fact that the two other Roush cars of David Ragan and Jamie McMurray encountered mechanical problems and finished 37th and 38th, respectively, it was not a good day overall for the five-car team.
On Biffle’s car, the team was using tires borrowed from another team, and twice lugnuts fell off during the stop, which prevented him from a chance to race for the victory.
“The guys did a great job in the pits today,” said Biffle. “You know, the stops were really good. It's just that on the two stops, the lug nuts fell off. … Either it got glued up too early, too late. There's some technique to it, which I know nothing about.”
Still, that was cold comfort to Biffle, who cost himself a shot at victory earlier this year at Auto Club Speedway, when he ran over an air hose during a pit stop.
