Debris Caution: Kobalt Tools 500

Debris Caution is a regular feature that puts you in the driver's seat for upcoming NASCAR events. It previews upcoming races and looks in depth at everything from point battles to the offseason.


Wow, you miss one week in the NASCAR season due to a power outage and you're more laps down than Joe Nemechek. By now you know all about the Kyle Busch controversy that surrounds he and Ron Hornaday. I'll also be blunt, seeing as I live in Pennsylvania it's impossibly tough to focus on NASCAR at the moment. I'll spare you the details but I will say that the firestorm that you may picture going on with Penn State (from fans to detractors, alums to those on the outside looking in) is dwarfed by the real thing. I won't go further into it because there's hundreds, if not thousands, of places for you to go to get information and opinions. Just bear with me if this post seems a bit scatterbrained, this blog is something that Bryan and I do in our spare time and at the moment it's nearly impossible for me to focus.

With the Sprint Cup series heading to Phoenix and Homestead for the final two races you would think that things shift heavily towards Carl Edwards' favor. He won both of these races last year and even though Tony Stewart won last week's race he wasn't able to make much of a dent in the points lead. It's crazy to think that Stewart has won four races in the Chase and still sits behind Edwards but that's a testament to how strong the #99 has been. At this point one of these two men will be the Sprint Cup champion so I'm going to dedicate this post just solely to the two of them. Let's take a look at their Phoenix International Raceway resumes and see who has the advantage.

Stewart has more experience at the track than Edwards (19 career starts vs. 14) but both are equal in other stats (Smoke has a slight upper hand with 10 top-10s to Edwards' 9, seven top-5s to five, Edwards has the only DNF between them and each have a win). Stewart has an average finish of 11.7 to Edwards' 13.0 but keep in mind that Stewart won at Phoenix in 1999, his rookie year. Stewart is easily the best driver on the circuit at the moment and with the momentum he has he's the heavy favorite to pull out a win this week. I think both drivers are poised for top-5 caliber days but I think Stewart absolutely needs to win this week to keep the pressure on Edwards or even pass him in the standings. Carl is the best driver on the planet at Homestead and his stats there (sneak peak for next week: 5.7 average finish) are eye-popping. Tony needs to get a bit of a nest egg before then and that means doing everything he can to win this race.

That's not to say that Smoke won't be driving the wheels off the #14 anyway but his recent success shrinks the already minuscule gap between he and Edwards. In the past five years Stewart has an average finish of 12.9 and Edwards sits at 13.7. Last year Tony failed to have a top-10 in either Phoenix race and as I mentioned, Edwards won this event. Not everything is bad for Smoke fans, though, Carl started on the pole at Phoenix earlier this year but finished 28th. Tony went on to post a 7th place finish and if that happens once again we could very well see a scenario where Smoke just has come in the top-15 or so to win a championship. Of course, it's highly unlikely that Edwards fudges up once again and he likely realizes that he controls his own destiny at this point. It should be a fun showdown between two of NASCAR's best and it's fun to finally have a tight points battle once again. Sure, last year was kind of close until the end but nothing close to this. Kudos to the new points system, NASCAR, though I still don't care for the Chase.