Mexico City — Carl Edwards survived a day of confrontations, before and during the race, to conclude a struggle of a weekend and post the top finish by a Ford driver in Sunday's telcel Motorola 200, the NASCAR Busch Series debut in Mexico.
Edwards may not have won over any fans there, however, and his team ignited a little animosity with Robby Gordon in the process. Still, considering the wearying trip south of the border Edwards endured, he'll take the third-place finish and dash to Las Vegas holding second in the season standings.
Edwards (No. 60 Charter Communications Ford) ran in the top 20 most of the day, and found himself second to eventual winner Martin Truex Jr. after passing Stanton Barrett on the 65th of 80 laps around Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. He lost second to Kevin Harvick two laps from the finish, but was pleased with third considering he mangled his primary car in a hard crash Friday, then blew an engine in the backup.
"I had a really good time racing here," Edwards said of the 2.518-mile road course, the first non-oval on the Busch schedule in four years. "The race was a lot of fun. I didn't make a lot of friends out there today, but we had a good race and that was a good points day for us."
Originally, it was believed Edwards would have to surrender his ninth qualifying position because of the blown engine, but due to an apparent loophole that permits engine changes in backup cars as long as it's prior to qualifying, he retained the spot.
That reportedly fueled emotions with Gordon's team, which had to give up its second starting position for a blown motor. Witnesses said Gordon got into a scuffle with Brad Parrott of Edwards' crew after driver introductions, and Edwards was among those who jumped in to break it up.
"I don’t know exactly what happened," Edwards said. "When I came onto the scene, Robby was roughing my crew chief up a little bit, so I just stopped Robby from doing that. I really didn’t know what the situation was.”
And that was just the pre-race festivities. On lap 37, Edwards bumped Michel Jourdain Jr. (No. 10 telcel Ford), a Mexican hero and main drawing card for the 94,229 in attendance, into the wall on the half-circle final turn.
"I was a little aggressive and charged Michel in Turn 7," Edwards admitted. "He was upset and he had a right to be. I hope I can make it up to him someday."
Jourdain, who'd overcome an extra stop for an overheating radiator to work his way back to the top 20, accepted the apology but was not happy having his marquee race ruined. After spending 11 laps in the pits for front-end repairs, Jourdain finished 37th.
"Carl Edwards, I don't know what he was thinking," Jourdain said. "He just drove into me. He came and apologized and said it was his fault, but it didn't do me any good."
But Edwards soldiered on. Varying pit strategies and eight caution periods kept the running order in a state of flux until Truex, the reigning Busch champion, took control the final 30 laps. After Edwards, the top Ford finishers were Kenny Wallace (No. 22 Stacker 2 Ford) in eighth and Ashton Lewis Jr. (No. 25 Team Marines Ford) in ninth.
"We'd have liked to have won but we overcame a 35th-place qualifying position," Wallace said. "We learned so much about the racetrack. There were so many blown motors, so many wrecked cars. We earned our eighth spot and we're proud of it so we'll just go on to Vegas."
Edwards heads to next week's event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway 61 points behind Harvick in the Busch standings. Lewis is sixth and Wallace eighth.
