Did you know that in the last ten years, the driver that finished second in the previous year’s NASCAR championship race did not win the following year?  Carl Edwards will be the latest driver to try and buck NASCAR history as he looks to win the Sprint Cup Championship in 2012.

Carl Edwards finished second to Tony Stewart in 2011 in the Sprint Cup Championship.  Edwards tied Stewart for the title but lost the tiebreaker which was most wins.  Edwards had a great season in 2011 but it wasn’t quite enough to win the title.  Can he be the first driver in 10 years to win the title after finishing second the previous season?

The NASCAR betting odds are going to have Edwards as one of the favorites to win the Sprint Cup Championship this season. Edwards could be a good choice to win the title in 2012 but there is no question that he will have to overcome recent NASCAR history.  The last driver to finish second and then win the title the next season was Tony Stewart who finished second to Jeff Gordon in 2001 and then won the championship in 2002.

Edwards doesn’t need to improve very much.  He only lost the title in 2011 because of the NASCAR tiebreaker.  Edwards has already thought of many instances where his team could have gotten more points. “There were a lot of places where I could have gotten one point. Of course. But you can’t go back and change that,” Edwards said. “And truly, we did try. It wasn’t like we had an off day down the stretch where we said, ‘Wow. We really screwed that up.’ We were on it.”

Edwards is a smart guy and he knows all about the recent history of second place finishers the following season.  It happened to Denny Hamlin this past year as he had a very poor 2011 season after finishing second to Jimmie Johnson in 2010. Edwards does have experience in this situation though as in 2008 he had a great year with nine wins and then flopped in 2009 as he didn’t win a single race. “We’re going to go out and do the best that we can — and I swear to you right here: if we don’t run well next season, it won’t be because we got messed up in the head over not winning.” Edwards said, “We’re truly going out there and focusing on what’s important. That’s not just because of me. I’ve got truly good people around me who will keep reminding me.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 7:25 am and is filed under Car News and Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.