EDWARDS, BIFFLE LEAD FORD IN CHASE STANDINGS; HIGHT PACES BLUE OVAL IN NHRA COUNTDOWN
Four races into the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Ford Racing drivers Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle remain second and third, respectively, in the standings – despite both being involved in a multi-car wreck in the closing laps of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Sunday.
Edwards heads into Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., 72 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson.
"I'm looking forward to racing Charlotte this week and getting back to a track where I feel comfortable," said Edwards, who has six top-10 finishes in seven career starts at the 1½-mile track. "We need a strong finish this weekend to make up for some of the ground we lost last week when we crashed out at Talladega."
Biffle, who is now 77 points off the pace, finished second at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the spring race.
"Things didn't go quite the way we had planned at Talladega, but that tends to happen there," said Biffle, who was racing for the lead when the wreck occurred with just 15 laps remaining. "We have some great tracks coming up, though, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the season goes."
The third Ford Racing driver in the Chase, Matt Kenseth, scored his first career Cup victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2000.
"I've always enjoyed racing at Charlotte," said Kenseth, who remains in ninth place in the Chase, 245 points behind the leader. "It will always be a special place for me. It's where I got my first Cup win, we won the All-Star race there in '04, and we've picked up a couple of Nationwide wins there, too."
Following a one-week break in the schedule, the NHRA Countdown to 1 resumes this weekend with the Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond.
Robert Hight is the top Ford Racing Funny Car driver in the Countdown; he is in third place, 74 points behind leader Tim Wilkerson.
"The only thing we can do is go out there and try to be number one, two or three every run we make, and that puts a little extra pressure on these other guys to make mistakes," said Hight, who has three victories and two runner-up finishes this year. "That is all we can do."
Hight's John Force Racing teammates Ashley Force (fifth place), John Force (seventh) and Mike Neff (ninth) also are in the Countdown. John Force is a 14-time series champion.
