Not staying in Vegas

By Dan Sipocz

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas, just ask Carl Edwards. Edwards managed to win the wild 400-miler Sunday despite a pair of tires getting loose in his pit stall (one not the 99 teams fault). In the end, the win may not even matter though.

Edward’s car failed post-race inspection and the team will likely be penalized for the infraction. Sucks to be Edwards right about now. He will go from leading the championship standings to not leading them while heading into the track he got his first career win at, Atlanta.

While the point loss would hurt, what could prove to be more costly is the loss of crew chief Bob Osborne if he is suspended. Edwards and Osborne have quite the chemistry together and losing him could derail Edwards’ hot start to the season.

Right now Edwards has to be the scariest driver on the circuit. He’s on a roll, he overcame pit road problems last week and still won, and has the backing from Roush Fenway, an organization that has been very strong in the early going. In fact, Roush Fenway has been strong enough out of the gate to draw comparisons to Hendrick Motorsports from a year ago.

The only way to find out for sure is to sit back and watch, but mark my words, what happened in Vegas with the 99 team won’t stay in Vegas. This could drag on for a while, if the Roush Fenway guys decide to appeal; see Robby Gordon’s case.

Further clouding the picture is the fact that the appeal from Rusty Wallace’s Nationwide team was heard and the Commission overturned it. Granted the lid was only loose on the Wallace entry while the lid was completely off in the 99’s case, but the infractions were similar.

In the end, this won’t stay in Vegas and could very well affect Edwards position in the Chase, if he makes the Chase.