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Going Green: Winners & Losers in Carl Edwards Re-Signing With Roush

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Carl Edwards has finally broken his silence. After months of giving no indication whether he was staying with Roush Fenway Racing in 2012, he has re-signed with the team that brought him up onto the Sprint Cup scene in 2004. This doesn’t just affect Edwards, however; it has left an impact on many other figures across the Sprint Cup garage. With that said, here are the winners and losers of his contract extension.

*Winners*

*Jack Roush* – Undoubtedly the biggest winner in all of this. He has seen his team enjoy a renaissance year, with two of his drivers having legitimate shots at the title after enduring a couple of seasons of mediocrity. One of those drivers is Edwards, but had he decided to leave, it would have completely demoralized the superb season the Roush camp has been enjoying thus far. More importantly, he can feel better about sponsorship. He has been struggling to find full-time and even part-time sponsors for next year. While sponsor details have yet to be announced with the signing, there is no doubt it will attract sponsors that this will help him big time.

4 Burning Questions: Carl Edwards, Edwards & Jeff Gordon the Favorite

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*Did Carl Edwards make the right decision in re-signing with Roush Fenway?*

After months of rampant speculation about where Carl Edwards would be driving in 2012, the 2011 Sprint Cup Series points leader opted this week to stay loyal to Roush Fenway Racing and remain with the organization, spurning Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards and a potential Home Depot sponsorship at JGR may have certainly been appealing, but when it comes to winning races, this was a no-brainer. In seven full seasons with Roush Fenway, Edwards has amassed 19 wins, 79 top 5s and 126 top 10s while becoming the face of the organization and one of the most appealing drivers for fans and sponsors alike.

Holding a Pretty Wheel: You Can’t Mandate Class – Where’s the Sportsmanship in Today’s NASCAR?

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Racing is a sport of emotion. Passion runs deep, emotion often runs deeper, feelings get hurt, egos get bruised. That’s as old as the sport, and hopefully it will never change.

However, there is a fine line between racing passionately and racing without scruples. It’s a line that drivers will sometimes cross unintentionally in the heat of battle, and when they apologize and move on, can occasionally be forgiven for. But it seems like that line is being crossed quite often lately, without remorse or consequence. And NASCAR not only allows it, it seems that at times, when it suits their purposes, they condone it.

The line has a name. It’s called sportsmanship.

Tearing Apart the Trucks: A Halfway Checkup & a Veteran’s Return

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After what was an agonizingly slow start to season–as usual–suddenly the Camping World Truck Series has already hit the halfway point of the season. With just 12 races remaining, the 2011 campaign has already shaped up to be one of the more competitive ones in a few years.

Following the Lucas Deep Clean 200 at Nashville Superspeedway two weeks ago, Johnny Sauter held a 42 point lead over third place James Buescher, but that lead closed up considerably after last week’s visit to Lucas Oil Raceway. After waiting too long to change out a tire going flat, the driver of the No. 13 Chevrolet broke a swaybar and was forced to limp his way around the track to a disappointing 23rd-place finish. As a result, the top 7 are now separated by just 46 points with 12 races remaining.

MPM2Nite: So What Happened While I Was Gone?

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There’s nothing like a week down the Jersey Shore to refresh an aging soul. Yeah, it was quite hot here in the Northeast while I was away, but generally along the shoreline it was pretty comfortable and if it got a bit hot there were always cans of liquid air conditioning at hand. The sand, the sea, the breezes and girls in their summer clothes. I had to come home, but I know I’ll be back next year and every year after that until I am too old and decrepit to carry a rolled up rice mat and a six pack cooler to the waterline.

It wasn’t that many years ago (OK, it was a few) the annual trek east to the Shore involved a complete disconnect from NASCAR and related news. Nowadays, everybody (except me) has some sort of portable digital device that retrieves information from the web with the alacrity of a Golden Retriever puppy sent after a tennis ball. Thus I was able to keep up with what was going on though whether that’s a blessing or a curse I don’t know.

Professor of Speed: Don’t Assume Anything

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After years of rolled eyeballs and harrumphs of disdain, NASCAR Nation could only shake its collective head and watch the scene unfold – Jeff Gordon scrambling after a late fuel stop in an attempt to catch the No. 27 Chevrolet of Paul Menard as the laps wound down in the Brickyard 400. With three laps remaining, Menard roared past defending winner Jamie McMurray and went on to cross the line of bricks to end what had become a better-than-thirty-year family quest to win at Indianapolis. The tears shed by Paul Menard’s father – the billionaire, John Menard, who owns a chain of Midwest-based home-improvement stores – said it all: all good things come to those who wait – despite what assumptions we in the grandstands (and the garage area, and the media center) had.

And don’t forget to add that good things come to those who work hard, as well, because getting to Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has not been easy, regardless of the vast Menard fortune