Carl Edwards looks to snap dry spell at Texas

Combined dispatches

For all the star power and remarkable consistency that he showed during last season’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Carl Edwards still had one thing missing — a trip to Victory Lane.

Edwards’ losing streak stands at 39 races, a stretch of just more than a year since he last performed his signature celebratory backflip. But his history and his team’s past performance suggest that may change this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

After a rare idle weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Edwards enters Saturday night’s Samsung Mobile 500 as the Fort Worth track’s winningest driver, with three victories in his 14 efforts there. His Texas win tally is equal to his three triumphs at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a similar 1.5-mile layout, giving him another reason for optimism.

“Texas is always fun, just a fun event to go to. It’s been a great race track for us,” said Edwards.

As long as his current dry spell is, it’s not the biggest drought of Edwards’ career. He also endured a 70-race skid that spanned all of 2009 and most of 2010.

IndyCar

LONG BEACH, Calif.

As the Chevrolet side of the paddock worked feverishly Thursday to change the engines for all 11 of its IndyCar teams, Ryan Briscoe leaned out of his team transporter to deliver a message to James Hinchcliffe.

“Hey, James!” Briscoe shouted, “thanks a lot, buddy.”

It was Hinchcliffe who blew an engine Monday during an open test session at Sonoma, and the failure was troubling enough to Chevrolet that the manufacturer decided to pull the engines from all of its teams. It’s a significant blow to Chevy, which has stormed out of the gate in its return to IndyCar by winning the first two races, but has now earned penalties of 10 starting spots in Sunday’s race at Long Beach for all of its teams.