Positive-thinking Edwards anticipates championship spotlight

Carl Edwards swung for the fences and homered twice this weekend.

But in the end all he has to show for it is another pair of victory trophies.

The real hardware Edwards was hoping to come away with from Homestead was championship trophies in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series.

He did all he could to complete the impressive double by winning Saturday's Nationwide Series race and Sunday's Sprint Cup season finale.

However he came up short of both titles by a total of 90 points.

"I knew we had a shot, as much of a long shot as it may have been, and I'm proud of the effort we put in this weekend and all year on both efforts," said Edwards, who despite the weekend-double lost the Sprint Cup title to Jimmie Johnson by 69 points and the Nationwide crown to Clint Bowyer by 21.

"It's been an unbelievable season to say the least and it's something even though we didn't achieve our ultimate goals, I'll never forget," he said.

While Johnson's record-tying third consecutive championship is an accomplishment for the ages and hasn't been done in more than 30 years, Edwards' season shouldn't be overshadowed.

Carl Edwards wins a trophy, but not the one he was really chasing. (US Presswire)

The Roush Fenway Racing driver led the Sprint Cup series with nine wins in 2008, surpassing Kyle Busch, whose white hot regular-season run had many engraving his name on the championship trophy before the first laps of the Chase was run.

Edwards stayed in the title mix throughout the championship stretch, methodically knocking down top five finishes and turning in the kind of consistent runs that usually add up to a NASCAR championship.

"Carl and (crew chief) Bob (Osborne) really stepped up this year like we expected them to," team head Jack Roush said. "There was some adversity along the way -- there always is in this sport -- but they more than rose to the occasion and Carl, in my mind, is one of the best drivers I've had to work with in my career."

Unfortunately for Edwards he ran into the buzz saw of Johnson, who despite one small stumble in Texas, showed the poise and determination one would expect from a guy who wins three consecutive championships.

"Jimmie and those guys just did what they've got a reputation for doing when it counted," Edwards said. "No one should be surprised by it."

Edwards can at least take pride in the fact that even though Johnson held him off for the title, he didn't go quietly.

"We won more races than Jimmie, and we ran with him when he won," Edwards said. "I personally feel like we closed a big gap this season. I feel we ran very well at the road courses, at Martinsville, at some of these tracks that haven't sometimes been able to keep up with them. So, yeah, hopefully, I know they'll enjoy this championship, but they knew we were here. You know what I'm saying? That's good."

Even with the bitter disappointment of not winning the title, there are enough positives from the season and Sunday's race to get Edwards through the not-very-long winter down time.

"I'm sure glad we won today's race because it will make it a little bit easier to deal with the offseason and coming so close to that championship," Edwards said. "We ran really well this season and it's something I wanted to make sure my guys understood is they did their jobs. They did a great job and there were two races where we lost points.

"One was my mistake and one was a complete coincidence or freak accident with the ignition system, so my guys performed well enough to win a championship this season, and considering how well Jimmie performed, I don't think that's a small feat. So tonight was a lot of fun. I'm glad that we won the race so that we can go into the offseason knowing we won more races than anyone else in this series."

And Edwards knows that when the 2009 bell rings, he'll be the guy most will point to as the one to knock Johnson off the top of the mountain.

"I hope I am," Edwards said with a smile. "I guess Jimmie has a chance to make some real history next season. I would be glad to be the guy to deny him that chance. I don't know if it really matters what's written or what's said.

"I learned that this season that so many things got built up and everybody thought things were going one way and then they'd go another way and it evaded everyone what was going to happen. So, yeah, I'll try not to get caught up in that, but hopefully we can live up to the expectation that not only we have, but that fans and our sponsors have."

Those expectations were definitely earned after the year Edwards had in 2008.