Edwards has struggled at Talladega lately

Posted Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
A

Have more to add? News tip? Tell us

By ANTHONY ANDRO

aandro@star-telegram.com

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The past two times Carl Edwards has come to Talladega have ended in dramatic and disastrous fashion.

Last fall he started an accident by bumping teammate Matt Kenseth and all but doomed his Chase chances with a 29th-place finish.

He was involved in a last-lap crash in April when he tried to block Brad Keselowski. Parts of Edwards’ car went hurtling into the stands and seven spectators were hurt as he finished 24th.

That accident led to extended fences at Talladega Superspeedway and a smaller restrictor plate.

The driver of the No. 99 Subway Ford, who comes into the race 10th in points, doesn’t think NASCAR needs to do anything to police the drivers and keep them from blocking.

"If you look at the blocks that have happened at the end of the race and how it’s turned out for the guy blocking, that’s kind of self-policing in a way," Edwards said. "It’s really easy to get turned around blocking. The guy in front has a responsibility to make sure he doesn’t swipe across the guy’s hood, and the guy behind has a slight responsibility to give the guy a little bit of room and let him try to defend his position."

NASCAR is also watching the driving this weekend. It warned drivers about bump drafting following Friday’s first practice.

Buescher’s double duty

Former Plano resident James Buescher, who started racing at Texas Motor Speedway, will drive in the Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next weekend at TMS.

Buescher, a rookie in the NCWTS, will make his first Nationwide Series start of 2009 in the No. 1 Miccosukee Resort & Gaming Chevrolet at TMS.

"Being my home track, I’m looking forward to it," said Buescher, 19, who made six Nationwide Series starts in 2008. "Being in front of the home crowd, it’s definitely where I’d like to run my first Nationwide race this year. I got an opportunity to run Texas and Phoenix and it’s worked out well."

Buescher, who will remain in Talladega for Nationwide testing Monday, qualified his No. 10 International MAXX Force Diesel Ford 19th for today’s Mountain Dew 250.

Braun in pole position

Colin Braun put his No. 6 Con-way Freight/ TrueLTL.com Ford on the pole for today’s Mountain Dew 500. Braun averaged 179.608 mph to snare the top spot over Terry Cook.

Ron Hornaday Jr., who has a 224-point lead over Matt Crafton, starts 13th.

Briefly

Memphis Motorsports Park is ceasing operations and its two NASCAR dates in 2010 will go to Nashville Superspeedway and Gateway International Raceway.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is instituting double-field restarts for 2010 and will allow teams to add fuel and change tires during the same pit stop.

The Dodge Challenger will make its Nationwide Series debut in four races in 2010 and then run the entire 2011 series.

Richard Petty Motorsports fined driver A.J. Allmendinger $10,000 for his drunk-driving arrest and placed him on probation through the 2010 season.

Looking for comments?

Join the discussion

The Star-Telegram is pleased to provide this opportunity for you to share your thoughts and observations about news topics. We enjoy lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask that you refrain from using profanity, racist or hate speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising or external links or including remarks that are off topic. To post comments, you must be a registered user of Star-Telegram.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.