Edwards is more than talk

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Officially, Carl Edwards is no longer the shy, modest farm boy from Columbia, Mo.

After beating Kyle Busch in Sunday's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Edwards displayed a daring sense of bravado and confidence.

"My psyche and mentality is pretty much fixed on that I'm the greatest race car driver to ever live," he said. "That's what David Pearson told me. He said if you don't believe that, you don't belong in that race car."

It's that kind of Muhammad Ali-like chutzpah that Edwards will have to draw upon as it's beginning to look more and more likely that the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup will be a two-man battle between himself and Busch – at least at the start.

Yet, at the same time, Edwards' braggadocio – even if he said it in fun – could be just what the Chase needs to bring out the best in him and Busch.

In fact, NASCAR could promote the hell out of it, a good-natured war of words and an almost WWE-like showdown between Cousin Carl, the Country Bumpkin vs. Rowdy Busch, the Vegas Villain.

Imagine the poster possibilities: Edwards wearing bib overalls with a hayseed stalk sticking out of his mouth staring down Busch, the new Man In Black with the wraparound dark sunglasses and black cowboy hat.

Good vs. evil, All-American boy vs. NASCAR's bad boy. It could be just what the Chase – which has taken its lumps the last couple of years – and NASCAR need.

OK, so much for temporary folly. Let's get back to the reality of how Edwards' win on Sunday affects the Chase, which looms even closer now.

By virtue of his eight victories, Busch has 80 bonus points heading into the Chase – barring him earning up to 30 additional bonus markers if he wins the next three pre-Chase events.

By winning Sunday, Edwards now has 40 bonus points, leaving him just 40 points in arrears to Busch if the Chase were to start today. He could close that gap even more in the next three pre-Chase races, as well.

Edwards, who has won five races this season, would have had 50 bonus points, but 10 of those – as well as 100 regular season points – were taken away after his car failed inspection following his victory at Las Vegas earlier in the season.

Still, he's managed to battle back, and Sunday's win was huge, especially when you consider that had Busch won Sunday, he would have built a 60-point edge over Edwards in terms of bonus points. Instead, it's only 40 points.

"The greatest part is we didn't give up more bonus points to Kyle," Edwards said. "He's just so strong. Every time I win and he finishes second, that's a 20-point spread for us. That's what we just have to keep doing, is to go out and win the next three events and go into this Chase on even ground."

Even though Busch became the first driver to officially clinch a berth in the 12-man, 10-race Chase, he is not letting that go to his head. He admits that Edwards has his full attention.

"Carl is right there, has been all year," Busch said. "He's been the guy that we've got to race on these mile-and-a-half and two-mile race tracks. He's been decent at other race tracks, too, but not as stout as he is at these, and there's a lot of those in the Chase.

"We've still got some work cut out for us. Yeah, it's a 20-point swing, so we've got to live with it, we've got to take it and hopefully we can make up for it somewhere else."

Had it not been for Edwards' proficiency on the last three restarts of the race – particularly the last one with only two laps remaining – Busch might have won his ninth race of the season. But Edwards remembered how Busch snookered Jimmie Johnson on the final restart at Chicago last month.

"Kyle's very good at restarts," Edwards said. "I knew he was going to hang back and get a run on my bumper like Jimmie (at Chicago). I wasn't going to let that happen.

"I didn't want to have to go through that pain, so I just did everything I could to have the best restart I could and it worked out great."

Admittedly, it was a heck of a weekend for Edwards. He started off Friday by celebrating his 29th birthday. Saturday, he dominated en route to winning the Nationwide Series race at MIS.

And then he topped it off with Sunday's victory. While he knows there's still three races left until the Chase and he still has that 40-point deficit in bonus markers, Edwards isn't about to concede anything to Busch.

"Somebody said it’s going to come down to just me and Kyle," Edwards said. "I hope it's just me and Kyle. It'd be nice to just have to beat one other guy, but I have the feeling that this Chase is going to be spectacularly competitive."

As confident as he's been all season, Busch is a bit more concerned about Edwards than he was Saturday. He likes playing offense and isn't used to playing defense. But he'll do it if he has to.

"It's great to be locked in and have everything go our way so far this year, but we've got three more races left here before the Chase starts and then we've got 10 more to keep it up throughout the Chase," Busch said. "There's a lot of room there that still anything can happen."

And that anything has a good chance of being Cousin Carl.