SCENEDAILY
FRIDAY DECEMBER 28, 2007
BY REA WHITE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Carl Edwards enjoyed quite a season, returning to the top tier of NASCAR Nextel Cup competition while also earning his first Busch Series championship.

Edwards and his Roush Fenway Racing team earned their second career spot in the Chase For The Nextel Cup, NASCAR's 10-race title-determining segment of the season, and finished ninth in the series standings.

Edwards, a 28-year-old native of Columbia, Mo., completed his third full season of Cup competition. He finished third in series points in his 2005 rookie year then was 12th a year ago. He earned more than $6 million in purses.

During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 30 in 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup driver points. Here's how Edwards' season unfolded:

By the numbers: Edwards finished ninth in the series standings, earning three wins with 11 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes over the course of the season. He also won the pole position at Michigan International Speedway.

Season highlights: Edwards earned wins at Michigan, Bristol and Dover while finishing as runnerup on two other occasions. He finished in the top 10 in four of the five races leading up to the Chase, starting that segment of the season fourth in the standings when the field was reseeded based on wins.

Key setbacks: Three engine failures led to three finishes of 42nd, performances that hurt his standing. The worst came at Phoenix International Raceway, the next to last race of the season. He entered that event fifth in the standings, but left it in ninth.

Newsworthy moment: Roush Fenway Racing opened the season in headline-grabbing fashion when longtime team owner Jack Roush partnered with John Henry's Fenway Sports Group for the first blockbuster ownership pairing. By season's end, other teams were following the same path. Edwards was later in the spotlight for an off-track confrontation with teammate Matt Kenseth. His most newsworthy accomplishment, of course, came in winning the Busch Series title in a season in which he took an early lead and held the competition at bay.

In his words: "It's been a great year. We've got wins in both series, a championship in the Busch Series and those wins are tough to come by. I'm just very proud of my guys. Hopefully, we'll have a little bit better luck next season. We'll be back. I just can't thank everybody enough for their support. It means the world to me."

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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