Gamble pays off for Edwards

Rain was falling. The cars were parked on pit road with eventual winner Carl Edwards in 22nd place, and the driver and crew chief Bob Osborne were arguing heatedly on top of the team’s pit box.

Not the most likely formula for winning a race.

Edwards and several other race leaders had pitted minutes earlier after rain began falling on lap 127 of the 200-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. Nineteen other drivers, taking a gamble on the possibility of a rain-shortened race, had stayed on track.

“The argument came from when it started raining real hard, then we were trying to blame one another for the idea of coming (onto pit road),” Edward said. “Bob said it was my idea and I really felt like it was his idea. I had to leave the pit box because I was worried Bob was going to, like, punch me in the neck or something.

“I had to walk away. But, personally, I feel like we have a good relationship. We can be perfectly honest with one another and that’s really valuable.”

Osborne said it was just the way he and Edwards work things out.

“It’s not out of the ordinary for us to argue,” he said. “We get mad at each other. We walk away and then we walk back together and calmer heads prevail and we have a discussion. … Nine-nine percent of the time it works out for us.”

It all worked out fine this time, with the race resuming after a 41-minute red flag and Edwards and Osborne winning the gamble — whoever’s idea it was.

Edwards was able to stretch his last tank of fuel to earn his fourth victory of the season, second only to series points leader Kyle Busch’s seven wins.

The race started in sunshine and it appeared Mark Martin, who took the lead from pole-winner Jimmie Johnson at the start and took control would be the driver to beat all day. But Martin had problems on two pit stops that put him back into the pack and then dark clouds began moving in, changing some strategies.

Formula One

At Budapest, Hungary, McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen has won his first Formula One race after Felipe Massa pulled out of the Hungarian Grand Prix with three laps to go.

Massa overtook both Kovalainen and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton at the start and was heading for victory when Hamilton dropped out of contention with a tire puncture. But Massa’s Ferrari engine overheated toward the end and Kovalainen took an 11-second victory over Timo Glock of Toyota.