Edwards' Chase hopes continue to stall with latest problem

CONCORD, N.C. -- Photos showed Carl Edwards grabbing Kevin Harvick by the throat in their much-publicized scuffle earlier this week.

Team owner Jack Roush: 'We're going to have to have some bad luck spread around before we get back into it with the 99.' (US Presswire)

But it was Edwards' championship hopes that were strangled Saturday night.

After dealing with a vibration and then a missing lug nut miscue by his crew during an early pit stop in Saturday night's Charlotte 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the worst was yet to come for Edwards.

Edwards' No. 99 Ford stalled on pit road and as he sat helplessly watching his crew search for a mysterious electrical problem he could feel his championship dreams starting to slip away.

"I switched all the switches. I tried everything I could," Edwards said. "When that tow truck was pushing me, I tried a bunch of different stuff. I thought it might be something as simple as that ignition switch right there, but it wasn't."

Edwards was finally able to return to the track but could only limp home 33rd and fell from second to fourth in the standings, going from 72 to 168 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

It was the second straight bad outing for Edwards, who was involved in last Sunday's controversial pileup at Talladega.

After three races of the Chase, Edwards was only 10 points out of the lead. Now halfway through the championship season he is heading in the wrong direction.

"We saw it happen with Kyle (Busch) the first few races," Edwards said. "I think everybody understands that you can lose a ton of points -- 200 or 300 in a space of a few weeks -- and we all know that can happen. This thing is far from over. We don't ever give up, that's for sure, but we needed to do better than this."

Team owner Jack Roush knows what a challenge Edwards now faces.

"They wound up changing both ignition boxes and the wiring harness that controls it and then magically it had ignition again," Roush said. "But it had no ignition on either box and the initial diagnosis was that it was dead.

"I certainly don't wish anybody else bad luck, but we're going to have to have some bad luck spread around before we get back into it with the 99," Roush said.

The dismal night capped off a challenging week for Edwards, which started with the Talladega melee and continued with his feud and fight with Harvick.