Top 20 Countdown: No. 6 Carl Edwards (Yahoo! Sports)
January 29, 2010
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(Getty Images) 2009 statistics Finish Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10 11 0 0 7 14 The countdownNo. 20: Martin Truex Jr. | Career statsNo. 19: Brian Vickers | Career statsNo. 18: Kasey Kahne | Career statsNo. 17: Clint Bowyer | Career statsNo. 16: David Reutimann | Career statsNo. 15: Kevin Harvick | Career statsNo. 14: Ryan Newman | Career statsNo. 13: Greg Biffle | Career statsNo. 12: Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Career statsNo. 11: Jeff Burton | Career statsNo. 10: Matt Kenseth | Career statsNo. 9: Juan Pablo Montoya | Career statsNo. 8: Kurt Busch | Career statsNo. 7: Mark Martin | Career statsNo. 6: Carl Edwards | Career statsNo. 5: Revealed Feb. 1
Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2010 season. The order was determined by a survey, which asked five NASCAR journalists – Jay Busbee and Jay Hart (Yahoo! Sports); Jenna Fryer (Associated Press); Dustin Long (Landmark Newspapers); and Nate Ryan (USA Today) – to predict the final standings for the 2010 season. The countdown will conclude on Feb. 5 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver.
2009 finish: 11th
Our 2010 predictions:
• Jay Busbee: 6th• Jay Hart: 8th• Jenna Fryer: 6th• Dustin Long: 8th• Nate Ryan: 5th
2010 outlook: If it weren’t for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s plummet off the side of the earth, Carl Edwards would have been a shoo-in for the most disappointing driver of 2009. Sure, he made the Chase, but the distance between expectation and result was greater for Edwards than anybody this side of Earnhardt.
Edwards was the consensus “most likely to defeat Jimmie Johnson” in 2009, and the end result was exactly zero wins. Coming off a 2008 in which he won one-quarter of all the races, it was quite a fall from grace – a back flip to mediocrity, if you will.
Edwards did have his shots at victory, only to be undone by a spectacular wreck or bad work on pit road. Even when he did qualify for the Chase – the same 10 events in which he won three races in 2008 – Edwards failed to deliver, notching a pair of 39th-place finishes and only three top 10s. Adding insult to injury, he broke his foot playing Frisbee in early September, forcing NASCAR’s most athletic driver to rely on a pair of crutches.
Still, that Edwards hobbled his way through the final few weeks of the season had nothing to do with the injury. It was a down year for the entire Roush Fenway Racing team. As a whole, the organization won just three races and only one after the calendar flipped to March.
If things turn around for Roush Fenway, then they will also turn around for Edwards, who this preseason won’t be burdened with the high expectations of a year ago.
What you need to know: For the first time in his five-year Cup career, Edwards failed to notch double-digit top-five finishes. In fact, he had more wins in 2008 (nine) than he did top fives in 2009 (seven).
