“The reason we won the race today was preparation,” said Edwards, referring to the work his Roush Fenway Racing team put into the new car during the off-season. “It was a lot of fun. Jimmie is always fun to race with, he’s a true racer. I’m lucky Jimmie was a little loose, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to get by him.”
“The track was a little bit different. It was fun to race here in the sun. If we have a 55-hour red flag, we’re still going to go out there and race as hard as possible. We’ve all had to wait through rain delays when the anxiety builds up.” “We have worked very hard,” said Edwards. “I owe a lot to Jack, the engineers, (team director) Robbie Reiser and (crew chief) Bob (Osborne). I hope this is a sign of how our season is going to go.
“There are very minor differences between the cars that are winning these races and the cars that are running fifth and sixth. We’ve just got to keep on top of it.”
Is Fenway making gains on Hendrick?
“I hope it’s an indication that we’ve caught up with them, ” said Edwards, who did his traditional back flip at the finish line after the race. “They were still second and third. They were the guys to beat today; I hope this is a sign that we’re up to their standards, to their level. I believe we are.”
“It feels good to be in Victory Lane,” Edwards, 28, said after doing a back flip from the window frame of his car, his trademark stunt after winning a race. “That was a lot of fun racing with [Johnson and Gordon].”
In the Cup race, “nobody was going to beat the 99 today,” said Gordon, a three-time winner at Fontana.
When the race resumed under sunny skies, Edwards was ninth but nonetheless felt he had the best car. “I told my crew last night, ‘We have them right where we want them, ’ ” he said.
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