Edwards, Roush Fenway take narrow points lead into Homestead finale

Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards held his ground with a second-place finish in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Race at Phoenix International Raceway and will take a three-point lead into next week’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Roush Fenway now heads into the final event of the season holding the points lead in both of NASCAR’s two major divisions; the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

“We have never gone into Homestead with the points lead," said Edwards after the race. “You know they give a boat away if you win that thing. I saw that boat and I would like to go down there and win it. That would be fun to put a cap on this season. That is what our mission is. We feel we have the cars and pit crew and have shown that we can gut it out on these really tough days when maybe we don’t have the fastest car. This is going to be good.

“It was a long day," added Edwards. “It was interesting. I was real calm but it is hard to watch that 14 crew and Tony do so well. They have really stepped it up. They are making us perform the best we ever have and we are doing the same to them. I followed him for about 40 laps. It felt like I was working him over and really paying attention to what he does. I determined he is a pretty good driver. If we can win this thing beating him that would be really cool."