Despite the fact Edwards ended the 10-race Chase with a sterling 4.9 average finish, Stewart won five of the final 10 events.  The result was a tie in Chase points between the two drivers, but since Stewart won more races throughout the season, he was awarded the championship.

 

And while Edwards may have only won once (Las Vegas), he was undoubtedly the most consistent driver from start to finish.  He led the series in top-five and top-10 finishes, and did so handily.  His 19 top-five efforts were five better than anybody else, and his 26 top-10s were five more than his closest competitor.  In addition, he tied for the series lead with three poles and ended up leading the point standings for 21 weeks.

 

In seven full seasons driving the No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford, Edwards has finished second in the final standings twice, in addition to being third once and fourth on another occasion.  Overall, he’s finished in the top-10 five times.

 

Besides the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Edwards also ran a full-time Nationwide Series schedule even though he was not eligible for the championship.  He won eight times in 2011, including the first series win for Mustang when he took the checkered flag in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

 

Success in both series, however, has been pretty constant for Edwards.  In 2008, he swept the Nationwide and Cup series races four times—including three of the last four races. A year earlier, he celebrated Jack Roush’s fifth NASCAR title when he was crowned the final NASCAR Busch Series champion.

 

Like former teammate Kurt Busch, Edwards made the direct jump from Truck to Cup midway through the 2004 season when Jeff Burton departed for Richard Childress Racing. He debuted as driver of the No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus at Michigan in August of that year and made a positive impression right off the bat by posting a 10th-place finish.

 

He became a household name to all NASCAR fans the following year when he became the first driver to win his first Busch and Nextel Cup Series races on the same weekend. After winning the Aaron’s 312 Busch event at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, Edwards beat Jimmie Johnson in a photo finish to win the Golden Corral 500 Nextel Cup race the following day.

 

But like many young drivers who make it to the Cup level, Edwards got his start in the Craftsman Truck Series. He earned Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in 2003 when he won three times and finished eighth in the final point standings, but was even better the following season with three wins and a fourth-place series finish.

 

The St. Louis area native was a fixture locally after starting his race career in 1993 driving four-cylinder mini-sprints. A few years later Edwards was in the modified ranks and won the Capital Speedway (Mo.) rookie of the year award in 1998. In following seasons he won the modified and pro-modified NASCAR Weekly Racing Series championships in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

 

Edwards has also appeared in the USAC Silver Crown Series, but really made his mark during a seven-race stretch in the Truck Series with Mittler Brothers Motorsports in 2002. He qualified 15th or better in six of those events and opened eyes with an eighth-place run at Kansas. That was enough for Roush Racing, which signed Edwards shortly before the start of the ’03 season.

 

Racing is something Edwards has been surrounded by ever since he was a child as he watched his father Mike compete throughout the Midwest. Mike Edwards posted more than 200 feature wins at a variety of tracks during a four-decade stretch driving modifieds and midgets.