Edwards plays down Stewart threat

Chase leader Carl Edwards claims Tony Stewart is not his main threat for the championship as the battle for the NASCAR Sprint Cup title enters its defining stages.

After seven out of 10 play-off events, the Roush Fenway driver leads the standing by nine points over Stewart, who has won three out of the seven Chase races, and recently took victory at Martinsville.

Stewart warned Edwards following last week's win, saying his rival had "better be real worried," and adding "he's not going to sleep for the next three weeks". Edwards tried to shrug off Stewart's comments, saying his true rivals currently rank behind Stewart in the Chase standings.

"This week I've thought a little bit about who my real competition is and, no offence to Tony or anything, but I think the guys that are behind him are truly the guys who have the biggest chance of doing well over the next three weeks," said Edwards.

"They've shown they can run up front in the points all year and although Tony could go on a roll, what I've been sticking to this week is that it would be foolish of me to just focus on him and not pay attention to these other guys who have been very, very fast.

"All the talk in the world doesn't mean anything. You have to go out here and perform and race well and that's what we're here to do."

Stewart, who could become the first owner to win a title driving for his own outfit since Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992, said his warning to Edwards remains in place and that it was not an emotional claim following his third win of the season. He says his rival is making a mistake if he is really counting him out as a true championship threat.

"The feeling hasn't changed," said Stewart. "It wasn't the adrenaline that was saying that. I've been racing 31 years and we've been a part of a lot of championship battles and I know what that feeling is when you feel that stuff is going right and that you've got that shot again.

"Like I said, he's making a mistake if he's counting us out and if he thinks it's just a mind game deal, I really don't care what he does. I'm going to control my destiny and my car, I don't care what he does with his car. I'm going to take care of business with ours."

Edwards has been twice a close contender for the Cup title, first in 2005 when he lost to Stewart and then in '08 when he finished third to Jimmie Johnson. He believes going through losing those championships has given him the experience to be more confident this time around, although he says he is not putting any added pressure on himself.

"I feel that we can do it," said Edwards. "I feel we've escaped some of our bad tracks and bad days and still been able to fight and claw and come up with something good. Now, we're going to some tracks that we can run well [at], but I also understand how much can go wrong. I know things that can happen and it's not over until it's over."

He added: "I really and truly learned some valuable lessons in 2005 and 2008. In 2005, we were leading the race at Homestead. I think I almost put Tony a lap down to win that championship and it didn't work out. He ended up winning and we ended up tied for second. That was my first shot at a championship.

"Right then, I thought, 'Aw, that's no big deal. We'll win it next year.' That was obviously pretty naive. Then in 2008 we were very, very fast and really good at every racetrack. I learned a lot of lessons through losing that one, making a mistake and having a part failure.

"Win, lose or draw I'll be back here next year, the year after that and the year after that. We're going to be tough for a long time, so what I'm doing is trying not to let myself think about this particular championship. I'm not putting a bunch of importance on it or trying to change things. I don't go to bed thinking about this thing - winning it or anything. I'm trying to go do my job."

Edwards enters this weekend's Chase round at Texas as the driver with the most Cup victories at the track, winning six years ago for the first time before sweeping the races at the 1.5-mile venue in 2008.

Busch suspended over Truck clash

Kyle Busch has been suspended from the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events at Texas Motor Speedway following an on-track incident in the early laps of Friday's Truck race.

Busch was battling for second place against Truck Series title contender Ron Hornaday when the pair made contact at Turn 2 while overtaking a backmarker on the outside. Both trucks skidded up the banking, eventually brushing the wall, causing officials to wave the caution.

As they came out of Turn 2, Busch went in pursuit of Hornaday, hit his truck's rear bumper and turned him against the outside barrier, with Busch also hitting the wall. The incident ruled Hornaday out of the series' title battle, while officials parked Busch in the garage immediately.

Following a meeting in the NASCAR hauler on Saturday morning, it was announced that Busch has been suspended for the remaining events at Texas Motor Speedway due to his actions.

The penalty means he will not be able to score Cup points this weekend, meaning he could end up virtually eliminated from Chase contention entering the last two races of the season.

Busch had qualified on the front row for the Nationwide Series event that takes place on Saturday afternoon, while he was 17th on the grid for Sunday's Cup race.

"I would certainly tell you that any violation that we have to react to, we consider the ripple effect of our reaction," said NASCAR president Mike Helton. "Every incident that we have to react to, whether it's in an inspection, something that's happened on the racetrack or what have you, that's not our mission but it's our responsibility as a regulatory group that manages the sport and we certainly take that very seriously.

"The circumstances that we saw last night on the racetrack, we didn't take lightly what we saw, we didn't take lightly the necessity or responsibility for us to react to it. More often than not our responsibility is to officiate the sport, inspect the hardware that's involved in the sport in a manner that everybody feels like we have an equal and level playing field. That's the sport's regulatory's responsibility.

"On occasion you have an incident that requires you to take the additional step like we're talking about this morning and it's not an easy step to make. It's not something we enjoy doing, it's not an action that we would want to do but we do take our responsibility to maintain control of the garage area and the unfolding of the events very seriously, which lead us to this action."

Helton added that further penalties could be announced for Busch next week.

Michael McDowell, who usually drives for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series, will race the #18 Cup car on Sunday while Denny Hamlin is set to fill in for Busch in the Nationwide Series event.

Roush dominates Texas qualifying

Greg Biffle beat team-mate David Ragan by a thousandth of a second to claim his third NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position of the season as Roush Fenway Racing dominated Friday's session at Texas Motor Speedway.

Biffle had edged Chase leader Carl Edwards earlier in practice and was able to later up his speed with a faster lap in qualifying, setting a time of 27.873 seconds at an average speed of 193.736 mph, which stands as the fastest pole position of the 2011 season.

His team-mate Ragan had been on provisional pole until getting beaten by the slightest margin by Biffle, while Matt Kenseth - the most recent winner at the track - completed a top-three sweep by the team. Edwards got loose while starting his lap and paid the price, finishing seventh fastest.

"It was a great lap," said Biffle. "The car was really fast right off the truck. It's a tribute to my team, how hard they work and how far we've come as a team. We've been fast through practice and it was a pretty uneventful lap. One one-thousandth of a second is not a huge margin to be on pole. It's really exciting that our racecars are that good."

Stewart-Haas Racing's Tony Stewart was fifth behind the fastest Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard. Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann was the best Toyota in sixth, while Penske's Brad Keselowski was the fastest Dodge in eighth. Defending champion Jimmie Johnson was 11th, with RCR's Kevin Harvick 21st.

Wood Brothers' Trevor Bayne was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers, ending the session 13th fastest while David Stremme, David Starr and Reed Sorenson failed to make the field.

Teams will run two practice sessions on Saturday, where they will focus on race preparation for Sunday's 500-mile Chase round.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Ford 27.873s 2. David Ragan Roush Fenway Ford 27.874s + 0.001s 3. Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Ford 27.884s + 0.011s 4. Paul Menard Childress Chevrolet 27.916s + 0.043s 5. Tony Stewart Stewart Haas Chevrolet 27.942s + 0.069s 6. David Reutimann Waltrip Toyota 27.953s + 0.080s 7. Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Ford 27.969s + 0.096s 8. Brad Keselowski Penske Dodge 27.976s + 0.103s 9. Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota 27.987s + 0.114s 10. Regan Smith Furniture Row Chevrolet 27.995s + 0.122s 11. Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Chevrolet 27.998s + 0.125s 12. Marcos Ambrose Petty Ford 28.006s + 0.133s 13. Trevor Bayne Wood Brothers Ford 28.039s + 0.166s 14. Kurt Busch Penske Dodge 28.056s + 0.183s 15. Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet 28.072s + 0.199s 16. Dale Earnhardt Jr Hendrick Chevrolet 28.106s + 0.233s 17. Kyle Busch Gibbs Toyota 28.107s + 0.234s 18. Clint Bowyer Childress Chevrolet 28.107s + 0.234s 19. Martin Truex Jr Waltrip Toyota 28.127s + 0.254s 20. Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 28.137s + 0.264s 21. Kevin Harvick Childress Chevrolet 28.177s + 0.304s 22. Jamie McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet 28.188s + 0.315s 23. Jeff Gordon Hendrick Chevrolet 28.189s + 0.316s 24. Ryan Newman Stewart Haas Chevrolet 28.210s + 0.337s 25. Joey Logano Gibbs Toyota 28.228s + 0.355s 26. AJ Allmendinger Petty Ford 28.235s + 0.362s 27. JJ Yeley Front Row Ford 28.262s + 0.389s 28. Denny Hamlin Gibbs Toyota 28.273s + 0.400s 29. Landon Cassill Phoenix Chevrolet 28.326s + 0.453s 30. Mark Martin Hendrick Chevrolet 28.356s + 0.483s 31. Jeff Burton Childress Chevrolet 28.363s + 0.490s 32. Bobby Labonte JTG Daugherty Toyota 28.388s + 0.515s 33. Casey Mears Germain Toyota 28.388s + 0.515s 34. David Gilliland Front Row Ford 28.418s + 0.545s 35. Michael McDowell HP Toyota 28.460s + 0.587s 36. Dave Blaney Baldwin Chevrolet 28.475s + 0.602s 37. Mike Bliss FAS Lane Ford 28.586s + 0.713s 38. Mike Skinner Front Row Ford 28.586s + 0.713s 39. Scott Speed Whitney Ford 28.620s + 0.747s 40. Joe Nemechek NEMCO Toyota 28.632s + 0.759s 41. Andy Lally TRG Chevrolet 28.643s + 0.770s 42. David Stremme Inception Chevrolet 28.669s + 0.796s 43. David Starr Leavine Ford 28.671s + 0.798s 44. Travis Kvapil Front Row Ford 28.711s + 0.838s 45. Reed Sorenson Gordon Dodge 28.849s + 0.976s 46. Geoffrey Bodine Baldwin Chevrolet 29.646s + 1.773s

Patrick picks Daytona for Cup debut

Danica Patrick will enter the 2012 Daytona 500 as part of a 10-race NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, Stewart Haas Racing announced on Friday.

The former IndyCar star, who is switching full time to NASCAR, will drive the #10 Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing in next year's season-opening event, attempting to make the field for what would be her first Cup outing.

Patrick will run at least another nine Cup races while driving full-time for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series. Following Daytona, Patrick will enter events at Darlington, Bristol (autumn race), Atlanta, Chicago, Dover, Texas, and Phoenix, while two other races have yet to be defined, with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis still a possibility.

"I'm excited," said Patrick. "There's a lot I'm worried for but on the other hand as I've kind of felt it with my Nationwide races so far is that - and in particular with the most difficult tracks - expectation levels are sometimes not quite as high. So you have the ability to make mistakes and that's the plan.

"There's going to be mistakes and there's going to be learning curves to get that out of the way before we try and do this full-time... It's about making the most complete future possible with the limited schedule of experience."

Patrick will have the chance to secure her place in the Daytona 500 field through qualifying or then through the Gatorade Duels, where she could get help in the draft from team-mates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, who will be guaranteed the start in the event thanks to their status in the points, as both are Chase contenders this year.

Team owner and future team-mate Stewart said after racing with Patrick at Daytona in the Nationwide Series this year he felt she was ready to make the jump up to a Cup car. He says having gone through the same transition from IndyCar to NASCAR in the past will allow him to better help Patrick master stock car racing as they look to field her full-time in 2013.

"It's been a fun journey for me and I think that's going to make such a fun journey with Danica," said Stewart. "It's knowing that the things she's going to be experiencing going from the IndyCars to the Cup cars are the same thing that I had to go through too. It's a nice feeling for me knowing that when she talks about something I'm going to understand it from first-hand experience.

"I'm just worried about how far into this 10-race deal it's going to be before she absolutely hates me because of where I'm sending her... But this is all in an effort to get ready for 2013. If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing obviously."

He added: "It's an aggressive schedule for someone who hasn't been in a Cup car yet but at the same time to compete at this level you're going to have to be good at these tracks."

This weekend Patrick will run her 10th Nationwide Series race of the year, her 23rd in the second-tier series over the past two years. She will also compete at Phoenix next week and then in the series finale at Homestead.

Martin to join MWR for part-seasons

Mark Martin will drive partial NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons for Michael Waltrip Racing for the next two years.

The 52-year-old veteran has signed a deal to drive the team's #00 Toyota in 25 races each year in 2012 and '13, replacing David Reutimann - who had been at the wheel of the car since 2007, winning the team's only two races thus far.

Martin's first race with MWR will be the 2012 Daytona 500, while Michael Waltrip will drive the car in the non-points Shootout in early February and the other restrictor-plate races of the season, as well as at Kentucky.

"[Sponsor] Aaron's and MWR have given me a chance to keep doing what I love with a competitive racecar and a perfect schedule for the next two years," said Martin.

"I have studied their programme, and, man, are they going in the right direction. I'm so impressed with what they are doing right now and I wanted to be a part of it. I want to help this organisation.

"This is like a rebirth. I just can't explain how excited I am to get to work."

In 2007 and '08 Martin drove partial schedules for Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc, actually leading the standings after the first four races of '07 before skipping a race for the first time.

Martin said he was not considering any full-time drives looking ahead and revealed he held talks with Tony Stewart about driving a third car part-time for Stewart Haas Racing but said an agreement was "not even close". His deal with MWR came following three weeks of talks with Waltrip, with the contract only signed last Wednesday.

The addition of the NASCAR veteran to MWR is one of several announced over the past few months. Clint Bowyer will be joining the team full-time from next year, bringing Scott Miller with him from Richard Childress Racing to take over as executive vice president of competition.

The team will be fielding three cars next season for Martin Truex Jr, Bowyer and the #00 entry - which will have at least three different drivers, headed by Martin.

Michael Waltrip said his team still does not have a driver for those races where neither Martin nor Waltrip are not behind the wheel, while it still needs a sponsor for a handful of events as the Aaron's backing covers 30 rounds.

Starting the 2012 season aged 53, Martin could potentially become the oldest Cup race winner in the series' history.

Reutimann and Waltrip part ways

David Reutimann will not return to Michael Waltrip Racing in 2012, amid reports linking Mark Martin with a seat at the team.

Reutimann, 41, who has been with the team since its debut season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2007, will leave the squad after driving the #00 Toyota in the last three races of the year.

NASCAR veteran Martin has been linked to drive a partial season at MWR next year and the team is set to announce plans for 2012 on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Martin is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the year as Kasey Kahne joins the team to take over the #5 car that the 52-year-old has raced for the past three years.

"David has been a significant part of Michael Waltrip Racing since the very beginning and will forever be a part of our heritage," said team co-owner Michael Waltrip.

"We want to thank David for his contribution to our growth and success over the past five years and wish him well in the future."

In 168 Cup career starts, all for MWR, Reutimann claimed the team's only victories thus far, winning at Charlotte in 2009 and last year at Chicagoland.

Rick Hendrick survives plane crash

NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick and his wife Linda escaped serious injury after a technical failure caused the jet they were flying in to run off the runway when landing at Key West, Florida.

According to a report from the local Sheriff, a Gulfstream 150 jet crash landed at the Key West airport Monday evening at 7:45 p.m. with the pilot and co-pilot radioing there were no brakes upon landing.

The report states that four people on board were taken to Lower Keys hospital, two with minor injuries and two transported for precautionary reasons.

A statement from Hendrick Motorsports confirmed that there were no serious injuries to either Mr. or Mrs. Hendrick, neither to the two pilots.

The plane, carrying Jimmie Johnson's number and initials, was registered to Jimmie Johnson Racing II Incorporated and ran completely off the runway before coming to rest in an unpaved safety area that had been added to the airport last May.

Almost seven years ago, on October 24 of 2004, a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed upon landing at Martinsville, killing all ten passengers including the team's president John Hendrick and Rick Hendrick's son and former NASCAR racer Ricky.