Ford's summer comeback continues, and Jack Roush is back at the track to enjoy it

  Carl Edwards: Roush men are starting to peak at just the right time (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BROOKYLN, Mich.
   Ford's summer rebound continues, and the Jack Roush story – recovery from a nasty plane crash, and his NASCAR operation's struggles finally coming to an end, after such a long dry spell – is vying with the Richard Childress story for headlines on the stock car trail.
   Childress vs Roush, that could well be the way the title chase shapes up, when it opens in  a couple of weeks.
   And maybe Toyota's Denny Hamlin is finally righting things himself too, after a long struggle.
   Childress' lead dog, Kevin Harvick, pulled off the win here Sunday over Hamlin and Roush's Carl Edwards, in a surprising finish to a rather surprisingly feisty afternoon of racing at this two-mile track. If California Speedway had 18 degrees of banking like this carbon-copy two-miler, then maybe the action in Los Angeles would be hot enough that NASCAR couldn't have pulled that Sprint Cup date.
    Edwards says the Roush Ford turnaround, which began a month or so ago, is clearly for real. And he says he now thinks he's got a good chance at challenging for the championship, and not just limping through the playoffs.
   And Edwards and teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth – 3-4-5 at the finish – played well together all day, which bodes well for the chase.
   Roush, finally released after two weeks in the hospital after his July 27th crash, has been here at the track all weekend, cheering on his troops. He spent much of the race atop a pit box, but toward the end of the hot afternoon he moved up to a much cooler track suite.
   Edwards said his strong restart at the end (the final 27 laps went green) was key. But he needed some give-and-take, and there wasn't a lot of that out there Sunday, which should have certainly delighted the announced  crowd of 105,000.
     "Actually Greg gave me space one time when maybe he shouldn't have, and that helped us a lot," Edwards said. "He was a heck of a teammate today.
    "I had a little bit of a run and drove down right in front of him -- missed him by an inch or two -- and he gave me space. That was huge.
    "I think Greg's car was better than ours; he was faster.
    "But just the way things shook up at the end allowed us to get up in front."
   Edwards came into the race just worried about hanging into the top-12 to make the chase. Now he goes to Bristol this week  a solid 266 points in front of 13th, the cutoff.
     "That makes me feel real good; I had no clue we were that far ahead now," Edwards said.
   "Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond. If we can get through Bristol and be 200 points ahead of 13th, then we just go for broke.
    "I think of it as 100 points per race is what you need.
     "If we were 300 ahead right now, we would really go for it at Bristol.
     "But you have to be careful."
    Who does have the best team at the moment on the tour, peaking heading toward the chase?
   Winner Kevin Harvick would be a logical pick.
   However with Hendrick men Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all continuing to have major troubles, there's a sense of unease with putting anyone at the head of the pack.
    "Denny almost won the race, and he has won five," Edwards points out. "I don't think going into the chase there is a favorite.
    "If we can continue gaining like we have been, we will be right there.
    "You can't count the Hendrick bunch out.
     "It is going to be a heck of a battle."
    And Roush will be right there, back with his troops.
    "We had the fastest car at the end...we just didn't have enough time," Edwards said. "It is good to have Jack back at the track. I wish we could have got a win for him."
    Biffle meanwhile was kicking himself. He dominate the first part of the three-hour race and led more laps than anyone.
   "We just got a weird set of tires in the middle of the race and were super-tight," Biffle said. "I didn't adjust on it...and then I came back loose again. And we did two (tires) and it wasn't very good. So at the end I said 'I'm going to leave it alone.' And I put four on it -- and that was almost as loose as I had been all day. 
     "I could carve through traffic, but when I got in clean air there was too much air on the front of the car and I was too loose to catch the rest of the guys."
    Clean air not working? That's odd.

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