![In a day where his teammates had no luck, Edwards got to flip out in his own way.](https://www.gantnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Food-City-500-WIN-300x200.jpg)
The one thing that is usually certain when it comes to Bristol is that drivers will get angry, some will try and enact revenge, and if it’s unable to be done this week, it will be done down the line.
But it’s not often when trouble comes to teams that seem to spread out over multiple teams but at the same time is only centralized to certain drivers, or organizations.
That is what happened this week with Joe Gibbs Racing.
For the most part this season, this group of drivers has seen excellent luck. Â Denny Hamlin won his first Daytona 500, the first for Gibbs since 1993, and Kyle Busch won the last two events heading into Sunday. Â Carl Edwards has been stronger entering this year than he was all of last year (more on him a bit later). Â If there was any team from JGR that has seen bad luck it’s been Matt Kenseth, but he won Bristol last season, so his confidence was high.
But on Sunday, it was not the case. Â At least not for three of the teams.
Busch had an early incident where he lost the right-front tire, then soon after spun out. Â His second blown right-front tire ultimately caused more damage than what could be repaired, and forced him behind the wall and out of the event. Â Later on, it was shown that when he was pulling behind the wall to his team, as there is no garage area at Bristol, his car made contact with a fan trying to take a picture. Â The fan did try to get out of the way, and later admitted she got in the way of his path and was trying to move to avoid contact. Â She didn’t, and at the same time Busch had a tough time steering because of the damage. Â The fan didn’t get treatment at the track, but did go to the local hospital to be sure (on her own), and was perfectly fine.
Kenseth suffered the same fate a bit later as a flat tire again put him behind the wall, and out of action. Â His bad luck continued.
Hamlin had tire issues, but more importantly had contact on pit road that destroyed the nose of his car, along with the duct work for his brakes.
Later, Goodyear determined they needed to take the tires from the Gibbs teams to analyze and find out if there was something awry in their setup to cause all of their tire failures. Â Other teams did suffer similar problems in the race, but not repeated happenings like the Gibbs group. Â Goodyear engineers want to determine if there was an issue with the tires, or with the setup, that caused all the failures.
Despite all this, the one driver that escaped all the troubles was Edwards. Â His weekend started well, winning the pole, his second of the season, and he led the most laps. Â But as has been seen before, leading the most laps sometimes doesn’t guarantee a victory.
For Edwards, the issues of his teammates had to be on his mind late in the going, and with challenges from Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, and even Dale Earnhardt Jr, who himself overcame a battery failure coming to the initial green flag, he and team needed to focus. Â They did just that on the final restart, and pulled away to get the victory. Â With a win, Edwards made the Chase, and it also meant there wouldn’t be a burnout or a lot of smoke, especially with how NASCAR’s post-race inspections of the winning car are so detailed.
Instead, it means standing on the window, greeting the fans, and backflipping right onto the racing surface. Â And once again, Edwards lands it with ease, which is impressive considering how Bristol is also banked on the straightaways.
After all the bad luck the JGR team experienced at Bristol, at least they came away with a win. Â So, guess one can say it was the best ending for what wasn’t the organization’s best race.
RESULTS:  1-Edwards  2-Earnhardt Jr.  3-Kurt Busch  4-Elliott  5-Bayne  6-DiBenedetto  7-Harvick  8-Bowyer  9-Newman  10-Logano
NOTABLE FINISHES:  18-Keselowski  20-Hamlin  23-Johnson  38-Kyle Busch
CAUTIONS:  15 for 102 laps.  Laps: 53-58 (#18 Accident-T2); 71-77 (#17 and 34 Accident-T2); 117-121 (#2, 18 and 34 Accident-T2); 148-154 (#42 Accident-T2); 188-193 (#20 Accident-T2); 219-226 (Fluid on track-T3); 260-273 (#18 Accident-T2); 331-336 (Debris-T2); 340-344 (#13, 46 and 47 Accident-T1); 350-355 (#44 Accident-T2); 411-416 (#11 Accident-T2); 438-448 (#3, 43, 78 Accident-T4); 461-466 (#14 and 38 Accident-T2); 486-490 (#4 and 46 Accident-T4); 492-495 (#7 and 10 Accident-T4).
LEAD CHANGES:  16 among 7 drivers.  C. Edwards 1-36; J. Logano 37-39; C. Edwards 40-42; M. Kenseth 43-53; J. Logano 54; M. Kenseth 55-117; C. Edwards 118; M. Kenseth 119-186; C. Edwards 187-189; P. Menard 190-193; C. Edwards 194-261; L. Cassill 262-281; C. Edwards 282-318; K. Harvick 319-331; C. Edwards 332-355; Kurt Busch 356-396; C. Edwards 397-500.
TIME OF RACE: Â 3 Hrs, 15 Mins, 32 Secs.
AVERAGE SPEED: Â 81.637 MPH
MARGIN OF VICTORY: Â 0.766 Seconds
CHASE GRID: Â 1. Johnson-271 (points), 2 (wins); 2. Kyle Busch-262, 2; 3. Harvick-287, 1; 4. Edwards-286, 1; 5. Keselowski-224, 1; 6. Hamlin-222, 1; 7. Logano, -21 (From 1st-Harvick); 8. Earnhardt Jr, -37; 9. Kurt Busch, -40; 10. Truex Jr, -73; 11. Dillon, -74; 12. Elliott, -82; 13. McMurray, -88; 14. Allmendinger, -99; 15. Kahne, -102; 16. Newman, -105.