Carl Edwards was pretty bummed out after the first Eliminator Round race at Martinsville. The No. 99 Ford driver finished 20th, falling 15 points behind the cutoff in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. He now finds himself needing to win one of the next two races to qualify for the four-driver Championship race at Homestead. “It’s not what we wanted,” Edwards said post-race. “We’ll go to Texas and go for the win. We’ll go to Phoenix and go for the win there and that’s all we can do.” No stranger to winning at Texas, Edwards ranks tied with Jimmie Johnson on its all-time victories list with three. His problem? He hasn’t won at the Fort Worth track in 11 races. Edwards will attempt to rediscover his winning ways at Texas Motor Speedway in Sunday’s AAA 500 (3 p.m. ET on ESPN). Despite his victory drought, he claims three top-three finishes in his last eight starts at the 1.5-mile track. Edwards has also sported a fast car there. He has started in the top 10 in seven of his last eight Texas races, including from the pole in last year’s fall event. Needing a win as bad as Edwards is Kevin Harvick. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver finished 33rd at Martinsville after he wrecked and was forced to the garage for a period of time. Harvick now finds himself 28 points behind the cutoff in the Chase standings. His outlook for the next two races includes good and bad news. The bad news: In 23 starts, Harvick has never won at Texas. The good news: Harvick’s final opportunity to win to advance is at Phoenix – a track where he boasts a career-high five victories and has taken the checkered flag in three of the last four races. Harvick’s start this weekend will be the 500th of his career. He will be the 36th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver to reach the milestone. Less than two weeks ago, Brad Keselowski was the talk of the NASCAR world after he pulled out an improbable victory in a “win or go home” situation at Talladega that propelled him into the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Going into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET on ESPN), Keselowski finds himself in a similar predicament. After finishing 31st in the opening Eliminator Round race at Martinsville, the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford driver is 26 points behind the Chase cutoff line and essentially needs to win one of the next two races at Texas or Phoenix to move on to the Championship final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Fortunately for Keselowski, winning hasn’t been a problem for him this season. The 30-year-old Michigan native leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with six victories and has captured a checkered flag in each of the first two rounds of the pressure-packed Chase. Unfortunately, winning at Texas and Phoenix has been a problem for Keselowski in his career. In a combined 22 starts at the two tracks, Keselowski has yet to collect a victory. Recent success at the pair of courses suggests Keselowski is on the verge of breaking through for his first win at either of them. In his last four starts at Texas, Keselowski claims three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up showing in the fall of his 2012 championship season. While Keselowski struggled in his first five career starts at Phoenix with no showing better than 15th, he has placed sixth or better in his last five races at the Arizona track, including a third-place result from the pole this spring. Keselowski feels confident in his ability to pull off a victory, especially after coming through in the clutch at Talladega. “Yeah, it’s still tough to do,” Keselowski said. “It’s not like we’re just gonna go and guarantee a win at Texas and Phoenix, but it’s also not impossible, and we’ve got the team … to pull it off.” source – NASCAR communications
