Isn't it about time for Carl Edwards to win again?

  

  
Carl Edwards: NASCAR's next Jeff Gordon? Now if he can just start winning again.....(Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   DARLINGTON, S.C.
   It's been two weeks now since Carl Edwards' electrifying, death-defying 199 mph backflip at Talladega.
   And it's unclear what, if anything, is going on behind the scenes to change the physics that led to that fence-scraping scare.
   However Edwards himself is trying to put that behind him and get on with the season….hopefully with a win. His best finish so far was a third at Atlanta.
   Here?
   "This place is very fast and very treacherous, now that they've re-paved it," Edwards says of Saturday night's Southern 500.
   "There's not much forgiveness at this place, because it's so fast and there's so much grip."
   The track was just repaved last year, and speeds soared.
   But Edwards says he's not worried about the tires: "Goodyear has a well-performing tire."
   Still Edwards says he'd prefer older asphalt. "I wish there was a way to age these places quicker.  I loved the old pavement.
    "But what's different about this is it's not as abrasive. The tires last longer. 
    "It's a little harder to pass because the grip level is so high and you're riding on that knife-edge…and if you get under someone and get a little loose, there's no room for error.
   "With the new surface, the car set-up is more important than it used to be.  It used to feel like 80 percent driver and 20 percent car. Now it's probably 40 percent driver and 60 percent car.
   "But that's still more than a lot of the tracks we go to."
  However the key issue for Edwards is still his pit crew, he says. Things have been too iffy on stops, and he says the issues haven't been resolved: "We have continued troubles on pit road.
   "But I am confident in the process.  We just need the time now. 
    "We need Brandon to develop as a tire changer…and he needs to work with the guys…and everybody needs to build that chemistry that makes them good on pit road. 
    "So we're a long way from where we need to be, but hopefully the process we've got in place works.
    "I went to the shop a couple weeks ago and met with all the pit crew coaches and went out and watched pit practice and talked to the guys. 
    "The problem is not in practice; they're decent at practice. The problem is just working together in the hostile environment that is the race. 
    "I stand by my guys 100 percent…but practice is practice and the race is the race, and we just have to figure out how to get them to work well together at the race.
   "They're doing two-a-day's. So they're working hard. It's just going to take time. 
    "Either they can do it or they can't… and time will tell."