Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards has snapped a 70-race losing streak with a win at Phoenix International Raceway. But the attention Sunday was on the three-driver championship race, and a dominating performance by Denny Hamlin that was derailed by poor fuel mileage in his Toyota. Emporia native Clint Bowyer finished 21st. Hamlin led a race-high 190 laps but didn't have the gas to make it to the finish. He gave up second place with 14 laps left for a fuel stop, and finished 12th. Jimmie Johnson conserved enough gas to make it to the end and finished fifth.

When I sat down to think about who might be able to beat Jimmie Johnson (and I wasn't going to pick JJ to win cause that's just boring) momentum was a really big thing for me. And no one was hotter at the end of the season then Carl Edwards. Cousin Carl won the final three races of the year. Not to mention, Roush Fenway Racing is due. They have all the ingredients and Carl Edwards is the only driver in the group really who can win 6 to 9 races in a season. And that is what it is going to take to be Cup Champion.

Fastenal announced today that it has signed a multiyear agreement with Roush Fenway Racing to become a primary sponsor of Carl Edwards' No. 99 Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Fastenal will be the primary on Edwards' No. 99 for 17 Cup Series races in 2012, starting at Daytona International Speedway. The company will also sponsor two additional Roush Fenway entries in a yet to be determined 2012 Cup Series race, putting three Fastenal-branded Fords on the track during a single event.

Tony Stewart raced to his first victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Stewart beat Edwards by 1.316 seconds Saturday night for his first victory since Oct. 4, 2009, at Kansas, leaving Edwards winless since the 2008 season finale. Jimmie Johnson was third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch.  

Twenty-year-old Trevor Bayne has won the Daytona 500 in only his second Sprint Cup start. Bayne won NASCAR's biggest race Sunday - just one day after his birthday - by holding off Carl Edwards by 0.118 seconds. The kid gave the historic Wood Brothers team its first victory since 2001 and became the youngest Daytona 500 winner. Bayne was pushed by Bobby Labonte and had just enough fuel to get across the line ahead of a hard-charging Edwards. David Gilliland was third and Labonte settled for fourth.

Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go Sunday and surged into contention for his third NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with three races left. The victory was the third for Stewart in the first seven races of the 10-race playoffs. Stewart moved from 19 points behind leader Carl Edwards and in fourth place to just eight points behind in second as several contenders got caught up in a season-high 18 caution flags. Edwards struggled all day, but rallied to finish ninth and held on to a lead that he seemed likely to lose.

Matt Kenseth took the pole Sunday at one of his favorite places after setting a track qualifying record of 191.864 mph at Kansas Speedway. Kenseth won the fall race at Kansas last season, and hasn't finished outside the top 10 since having engine trouble in the 2009 race. He has finished in the top five at Kansas five times. Carl Edwards will start on the front row for the first time at Kansas after qualifying second with a lap of 191.748. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. qualified third.

For a large part of the 2011 Carl Edwards was the hottest thing on wheels. For most of the 2012 season, he was just a footnote. It seemed like the more he tried, the more he pushed, the farther away from 2011 form Edwards got last season. 2013 is a fresh start for the 99 team. Crew Chief Jimmy Fenning comes over from the 17 team to take over as crew chief. And pretty much every where he has gone, consistency has followed. Oh and Fenning has what Edwards wants, a Cup Championship (in 2004 with Kurt Busch)

Two races to go, three drivers with any kind of chance of winning the Sprint Cup Championship. So obviously the stakes at Phoenix International Raceway, are rising. The stakes are probably the highest for Clint Bowyer, as his margin for error is the smallest. Not only must he run a perfect race at Phoenix, but he also needs a little help in the way of bad luck for both Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski. And Phoenix is not a great track for Bowyer, but then again, neither was Charlotte.

So the next time I want to pick anything else than a Roush Fenway Ford at Michigan, someone talk some sense into me. The Cat in th Hat showed this weekend his fleet still has the horses to motor to victory in Michigan when Greg Biffle took the checkered flag on Sunday. " It's fun to race in front of home crowd," said Roush, who company Roush Industries is headquartered nearby.   "We've got two suites here.    We have our biggest hospitality of the year for the two Michigan races of any racetrack venue that we do it for Roush Industries, and our NASCAR sponsors as well.

This time one year ago, Brad Keselowski was barely on anyone's radar. Sure he had two career NASCAR victories, but both were widely considered to be kind of a fluke. Fast forward a year, and Keselowski has won five times since, including three this season,  the most recent this past weekend at Kentucky. "I think you've got to go out and win races," said Keselowksi.   " Luck stuff, everybody says luck stuff in races.   If you go out and have good cars and win races and execute and do all those things, Tony proved that you'll win a championship.

After two straight weeks at NASCAR's home base in Charlotte, it's time to take this traveling circus back on the road. This week's stop Dover International Speedway, also known as the Monster Mile and with good reason. It's is the fast mile long track on the circuit and it has a bad reputation. "If you say Dover doesn't intimidate you, you are lying," said Jeff Burton. "I couldn't think of a more perfect nickname than the 'Monster Mile.' You have to be exceptionally aggressive, but if you cross the line, you will be in trouble.

NASCAR president Mike Helton says the Daytona 500 will now start Monday night at 6 p.m Central. On Sunday, rains caused the Great American raced to be postponed for the first time in the history of the Daytona 500, it has been postponed until Monday. Rain soaked Daytona Beach for most of the day on Sunday and despite NASCAR's best try to dry the track, the rain just wouldn't let up. Estimates were that it might take up to four more hours to dry the track and NASCAR decided that it would just be too late to start the race then.

It was a Ford kind of day in Daytona with the Blue Ovals grabbing four of the top five spots in qualifying for the 500. Carl Edwards starts on the pole, with his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle also starting on the front row next Sunday. Dale Earnhardt, Junior broke up the Ford party, by running third quickest in his Hendrick Chevy. Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears were forth and fifth quickest, both in Fords. Outside of the front row, the rest of the starting positions will be set by Thursday's Gatorade Duels.