Edwards leads Chase despite just one win

He has only one win this year, but Carl Edwards is at the top in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He’s not embarrassed about that.

Not one bit.

“I’m glad you asked about that,” he said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “I thought about that a little bit. If you go back to 2008, we won nine races – more top-fives, more top-10s, more points than anybody in the series the whole year – and we didn’t get a championship for it. To me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with going out and doing our jobs, performing the very best we can and taking this championship home with just our one race win at Vegas.”

Edwards has come this far with just that one win, at Las Vegas on March 6, the third race date of the Sprint Cup season.

But he might not have to rely on only that one win, considering his history at Texas Motor Speedway, the next stop for the Chase contenders.

Edwards takes an eight-point lead into Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 in Fort Worth, where he has won three times, including a sweep of the spring and fall races in 2008.

“We can get by on what we’ve been doing, but that’s not what we want to do. That’s way too much stress. That’s no fun,” Edwards said. “Fortunately, we’re going to Texas, and right or wrong, I am pumped to go to Texas. You never know how you’re going to run, but I feel good going there. I love that place. I love everything about Texas … and our performance there has been spectacular.”

Edwards isn’t counting on anything, even his history at TMS. He saw Matt Kenseth go from second place in the Chase to fifth in the span of a few dozen laps at Martinsville Speedway last weekend.

“We lost 37 points at Pocono,” Edwards said. “We lost 38 points at Daytona for just a fluke of problems and accidents, so I still think until we get down to Homestead, I don’t think we can point to favorites.

“I hope I’m one of them. I hope I’m a favorite. But it’s simple math. There is a lot that can still happen.”