Saturday, August 30, 2008
FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — What rivalry?
Kyle Busch jokingly says Carl Edwards is his “bff,” texting shorthand for best friend forever. Edwards stopped short of such a commitment, but he did say, “I feel like we really have been good competitors.”
The two NASCAR Sprint Cup stars caused a sensation — and evoked images of great rivalries past — Saturday night at Bristol when Edwards nudged a dominating Busch aside to take the lead with 30 laps to go and the two then exchanged postrace bumps after Edwards won.
The fans at the Tennessee track ate up the action, hooting with glee. But the bumping prompted NASCAR to chastise the two drivers and later to put both of them on probation for six races.
Meanwhile, newspapers, Web sites and blogs were filled with stories about “the new rivalry.”
Lending credence is a championship battle that seems to be shaping up between the two. Busch, the hottest driver all season, is on top in points and with eight wins, while Edwards is second in the standings and closing in with six wins, including three in the last four races.
Although 12 drivers, including two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, will be in the 10-race Chase for the championship that begins after races this Sunday at Auto Club Speedway and next week at Richmond, it seems most everyone — except Busch and Edwards — expects those two to be the focus of the stock car postseason.
That would be just fine with both of them.
“It’s very cool to have our team running so well, to be on top of our game, and it’s really fun to have somebody like Kyle that’s so fast,” Edwards said Friday. “There have been a couple of races where it’s like either me or him, and I think that brings out the best in a lot of people.”
Busch, who has finished second to Edwards the past two weeks after winning the previous race, said he knows there’s still some work to do if his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is going to hold off the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford for the title.
So, is there something specific Busch’s team needs to do to regain the edge?
“Besides that they have a little better race cars than us at sometimes, then no, not really,” Busch said. “Yeah, they’ve caught up to us the past few weeks, but we finished second. It’s hard to put that into trying to become any better.”
XQualifying results and lineup.