HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Carl Edwards saw his championship hopes in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 destroyed inside the final 10 laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Following a caution on Lap 252, Kyle Larson led the field back to green with Carl Edwards on the bottom lane. Right behind the No. 19 ARRIS Toyota was championship hunter Joey Logano right behind.
Logano went low entering Turn 1, but Edwards came to block with the two made contact and ignited a massive nine-car accident.
“I’m alright,” Edwards said moments after the crash. “I thought I gave him enough room. It’s all me.”
Before the chaos, Edwards had the most dominate car of the championship contenders leading eight times for 47 laps before finishing 34th.
In addition to Logano and Edwards, Ty Dillon, Chase Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Regan Smith and Martin Truex Jr. were involved in the Lap 258 crash.
“Yeah, I think it was shared, you know what I mean? I think it was just racing,” said Edwards after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “I haven’t seen a real close up view, but the way I had it figured is first of all that was the race of my life up to that point. That was a lot of fun and Joey (Logano) was so good on the short run.
“I don’t know how he got that restart. It was a really good restart. I thought we were – I thought everything was going to work out and Jason (Hedlesky, spotter) told me he was looking low and I – he told me basically he was there. I knew what Jason was saying and I just pushed the issue as far as I could because I figured that was the race there and so here let me watch it again.
“Yeah, Joey just timed it perfectly, he moved down, I thought I could feel him a little and I just thought that – I was probably a little optimistic, but I thought I could clear him or force him to lift. I just thought I had just a little more time, but he drove down as far as a guy could be expected to drive down and that’s how it ended. I don’t know what the caution was for. I really hope it was something that we needed to have a caution for because that was really – that was going really well.”
Afterward, Edwards climbed from his car uninjured and walked down pit lane where he made a visit to the Team Penske pit box of Logano where he spoke to crew chief Todd Gordon about the incident.
“Yeah, no apology. I just wanted to say, ‘Hey, that’s just racing and good luck to you guys,” Edwards mentioned. “There’s so much on the line. I want to make sure that – I don’t want to be anything extra to mess with Joey (Logano). He’s done a good job and they deserve to go have a good, fair race.”
Logano was able to continue from the crash, but decided to pit for four new tires and repair the minor damage suffered in the incident. The 17-time Cup winner finished fifth after a subsequent caution and NASCAR overtime.
“It was eventful to say the least. I hate being that close to a championship and not getting it,” he said.
“The team did a great job all day. We had a good race car and we put ourselves in position to win. No one made any mistakes or anything like that on our pit crew. That last restart, I was hoping to get Jimmie there and trying to get either to the inside or outside of him.
“I just timed it a little bit wrong to get underneath him. I just didn’t have enough time to get under him. We lost some time there and unfortunately we finish second. The championship means so much and everyone forgets about second place. That is what stinks. But overall I am proud of this team. This will be motivation for next year. This hurts.”
Overall, Logano finished second in the championship standings behind now seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
