Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

Carl Edwards drove a pair of Roush-Fenway Racing Fords into victory lane at Michigan International Speedway over the weekend. He won both the Nationwide Series race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup race on Sunday. Fords in general, and Roush Fords in particular always seem to do well on the two mile track that is just an hour’s drive from Jack Roush’s home base in Livonia, Michigan. And this weekend was no exception as the “Cat in the Hat” owned four of the top five finishers in Sunday’s race.  

Edwards dominated the race on Saturday leading 71 of the 125 laps and the win moved him up one spot in the Nationwide standings to second. He is now only 113 points behind leader Clint Bowyer. He wasn’t quite so dominant on Sunday in the Sprint Cup race even though he eventually led the most laps in that race too. In the end he had to deal with the series hottest driver, Kyle Busch. And although a couple of late race restarts gave Busch a shot at Edwards, the Roush-Fenway Ford was simply uncatchable. Edwards now has five wins on the year and is closing in on the bonus points lead held by Kyle Busch with only three races left until the Chase cutoff.  

The team that made the biggest move in the points on Sunday was the number 24 Hendrick Motorsports team and driver Jeff Gordon. Unfortunately it was in the wrong direction as a cut tire on lap 90 forced Gordon into the wall and then into the garage. His 42^nd place finish dropped him to ninth place in the standings. Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin also had disappointing finishes that dropped them each three spots in the standings. Hamlin is now on the bubble in twelfth place, only 25 points in front of Clint Bowyer.

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The NHRA drag racing series was in Reading, PA over the weekend and Tony Schumacher continued to roll over the rest of the Top Fuel field as he won his fifth straight NHRA national event and his tenth of the 2008 season. He now has a perfect record since the series switched to running to 1,000 feet, having gone 20 straight unbeaten rounds. He defeated Larry Dixon in what was the 82^nd career final round appearance for both drivers.

“It’s definitely been incredible,” said Schumacher. “There really are no words. I could stand up here all day long and try to explain it, but it’s been a gift of a year.”

In the Funny Car category it was the former teacher over the headmaster as Jack Beckman defeated his former boss, Frank Hawley. 2008 is Hawley’s first season back in the driver’s seat after more than twenty years on the sidelines while he ran his famous drag racing school. Beckman used to be employed by Hawley as an instructor.

After the race, Beckman said; “Racing Frank Hawley was huge. Like I said, it’s like a Little League pitcher that’s just a huge fan of the sport, and they bring up Mickey Mantle to play ball with you. Frank’s meant so much to this sport, and having him back . . . is only going to make it better.”

Hawley is a former national champion in Funny Cars (1982 and ’83) but hasn’t been to a final round since Brainerd in 1984.

Pro Stock teammates Jeg Coughlin and Dave Connolly met in the final with Connolly giving the race away with a rare .005 red light. Coughlin got to the final by defeating V. Gaines, Jim Yates, and Kurt Johnson, who also left too early.

“We did a good job today, but we were also pretty fortunate. You don’t expect Kurt Johnson and Dave Connolly to go red against you, but we’ll take it,” Coughlin said.