FORT WORTH – Kevin Harvick should be expecting a thank you card and maybe a bottle of expensive champagne from Carl Edwards any day now.

After all, it's the least that Edwards can do.

If it wasn't for Harvick deciding not to run the Busch Series circuit on a full-time basis again as he did en route to winning the championship last season, it's likely Edwards would not have such a commanding series lead right now.

Edwards came into Saturday's O'Reilly 300 here at Texas riding a two-race winning streak and holding a 321-point lead in the Busch standings after just seven races. He expanded that margin to a massive 403 points over second-ranked Dave Blaney after finishing third in Saturday's race.

Think of it: that's nearly halfway to the 824-point edge Harvick had over Edwards at the end of last season, but after less than one-quarter of the season.

Of course, if Harvick had decided to run the whole season right now, he'd likely be neck-and-neck with Edwards. The defending series champion has started six of the first eight races on the Busch tilt and is third in the standings, 432 points behind Edwards (Harvick finished 11th Saturday).

But just when Edwards thought he was through with Harvick, guess who he's battling in the Nextel Cup Series? Harvick, among others. Edwards currently is ninth in the standings, a mere 23 points ahead of 10th-ranked Harvick.

As he prepares for Sunday's Samsung 500, Edwards is in great position to put some distance between himself and Harvick, not to mention close the 256-point gap between himself and series leader Jeff Gordon.

No driver ever has won twice in Texas' 12-race Cup history, but Edwards stands a good chance of becoming the first – and he has some extra incentive to do so.

His win at Texas in November 2005 was the fourth and final of that season for the driver of the No. 99 Ford, and it also was the last time he visited victory lane in Cup competition. Edwards now has gone 44 races without a win in NASCAR's top series.

"I think the biggest reason you see so many different winners here is this isn't a track where the driver can really make a huge difference," Edwards said. "It's a track where the car and the setup and the crew chiefs really shine. If they can do the job and get things right, it makes the driver look really good."

Edwards' and his team's progress over the weekend can only bolster their hopes of finally winning again.

Consider that after being 18th-fastest (189.2888 mph) during Friday's rain-interrupted practice session, Edwards jumped to third-fastest (189.560 mph) in Saturday morning's practice and then sat atop the speed charts (188.534 mph) in the Happy Hour session a few hours later.

After finishing sixth and seventh at Las Vegas and Atlanta, respectively, Edwards slipped somewhat in the last two races, which were the debut events for NASCAR's highly touted Car of Tomorrow. Edwards finished 12th at Bristol and 17th two weeks ago at Martinsville.

While the COT returns to action next Saturday at Phoenix, this week's race is in the old body style on a race track that is very familiar and a favorite of many drivers, Edwards included.

"Going to a 1½-mile track is a nice change of pace from the short tracks we've been racing at recently," Edwards said. "We've not had the best of runs the last couple weeks, but I'm not going to let that get me down. I've had a lot of success at Texas throughout my career and I'm hoping to continue that this weekend."

Going into a stretch of tracks that has treated him well in the past – Edwards has a win, three additional top-fives and seven other top-10s between Texas, Phoenix, Talladega, Richmond and Darlington – the opportunity for Edwards to turn around his recent spate of mediocrity is now, according to crew chief Bob Osborne.

"We're certainly looking to rebound from the last couple weeks," Osborne said. "We've been the victim of circumstances in a lot of cases, but that's racing. We're taking a really good car that has run well on 1½-mile tracks, so we feel pretty good about our chances to run well this weekend."

Perhaps well enough to leave Harvick and the rest of the Cup field far behind on Sunday.

Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR columnist. Send Jerry a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Saturday, Apr 14, 2007 9:12 pm, EDT

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