CE DIEHARDS - February 20, 2008 - Race Previews
Race Information - February 24, 2008 = 3:30 PM ET on Fox
After a run of bad luck in the Daytona 500 caused Carl Edwards to finish 19th, Edwards will go to one of his best tracks on the Sprint Cup Series circuit this weekend at California Speedway. Edwards will look to improve on his career best finish of second at the track from last September in the Sharp Aquos 500.
Chassis for Fontana: This weekend the No. 99 Dish Network/Office Depot Racing team will be racing a brand new car in Fontana, California. The Chassis the team will be racing RK-540 at California Speedway this weekend. The car ran some of the best average lap times in testing at Fontana in January during Preseason Thunder.
Ford teams have second race figured out in Sprint Cup Series: The last six years a Ford team has been to victory lane in the second race of the season. Three of those races have been held at California Speedway and three have been ran at the North Carolina Speedway which is no longer on the schedule.
Edwards has feel for Fontana: Carl Edwards made his seven career start in last year's Sharp Aquos 500 and put down his fifth top-five finish at the track. Edwards has piloted the No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford Fusion to 6 top-tens to go along with his top-five efforts, and he has finished all but three laps of the races schedule distance(1752/1755); Edwards has led 56 laps in the races, and has average start of 17.9 and finish of 7.6. He has won a total of $1,00,442 in winnings at the two-mile oval.
Two Mile Tracks Equal Edwards Best: In 14 career starts at the two-mile tracks of California and Michigan, Carl Edwards has been the master at the two tracks since making his Sprint Cup Series debut at Michigan Speedway in 2004; Carl Edwards has recorded 1 win, 9 top-five finishes, 12 top-ten finishes, and led a total of 187 laps of the 3087 laps ran at the track and he has completed 3085 of the 3087 laps that have been tracked around the two venue.
DISH ON THE FORD THIS WEEKEND: Dish Network will be on the No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford Fusion this weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at California Speedway.
Edwards on California Speedway's racing: "I just love California Speedway. It's a fun track and I've had a lot of success there. My Dish Network Ford should be extremely fast out there. Bob Osborne and my entire team have worked really hard to make advances with the new cars and after such a great test, I'm really looking forward to this weekend.
" I always enjoy going out to the L.A. area, there's so much to do and it's a really cool area. This week I'll be filming a Vitamin Water commercial out there and on Thursday night I'll be a guest on the radio show Loveline - it should be a lot of fun."
Osborne on California Speedway: "I am excited to go to Fontana. It has been a successful race track for Carl and the 99 team and I feel like with the progress we've made with the new cars we should be able to run as well as we have in the past. We had a good test at California in January and I hope that everything will transfer to the race weekend. We are talking the car we tested - the car that was quickest in several of the test sessions. I'm looking for atleast a top-five for the 99 team this weekend."