Edwards is peaking at perfect time

Carl Edwards is heating up, and should win one more race before the Chase starts. AP

Five things we learned on a blue-sky Sunday afternoon at Michigan International:

1. Carl Edwards is coming on at the right time.

On Friday at Michigan I asked several drivers who they thought was the favorite to win the championship, and the majority uttered the same name: Edwards. Though Kyle Busch has taken more checkered flags than anyone else on the circuit (eight), Edwards has had the dominant car this season on the intermediate tracks, which form the backbone of the Chase. Five of the Chase races take place at these venues, and Edwards should be the favorite in each one.

Edwards, who turned 29 on Friday, became the second driver in history to win both the Nationwide and Cup races at Michigan in the same weekend (the other was Mark Martin in 1993). What was most impressive about Edwards on Sunday was the apparent ease with which he outran Busch. In what was tantamount to a sneak preview of the Chase, Edwards and Busch ran one-two for most of the final 30 laps of the race. On the final green-white-checker restart, Edwards, who was in first, feared that Busch would smack his bumper, which would make his car loose, and perform the pass. But in an impressive display of horsepower, Edwards pounded the gas and simply pulled away from Busch on the restart. Game over, as Edwards cruised to his fifth victory of the season.

Expect Edwards to win one more race before the Chase starts. He won the fall race last year at Bristol, which is where the circuit stops next Saturday. Busch has already guaranteed that a Roush Ford will win at California Speedway, where the Cup boys will race in two weeks and where Edwards took the checkers earlier this season. Right now the schedule sets up perfectly for Edwards, and he clearly senses that he's on the cusp of doing something special over the final 13 weeks of the season.

"We're gearing up for the Chase," said Edwards. "I'm feeling stronger than ever."

2. Roush Fenway Racing dominated.

Jack Roush has always considered races at Michigan to be among the most important of the season. MIS is located in the Ford company's backyard and Roush, a Ford owner, likes to put on a good show for the heavies from the automotive giant who trek to the track and watch the race from luxury suites. Well, mission accomplished on Sunday.Four of his drivers finished in the top five: Edwards, David Ragan (third), Greg Biffle (fourth), and Matt Kenseth (fifth).

Other than Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing has been relatively quiet this season, but the other Roush drivers are gaining speed at the perfect time. Biffle jumped from 10th to seventh in the standings, Kenseth 12th to 10th, and Ragan is 13th and 26 points behind Denny Hamlin for the final spot that advances to the Chase. Suddenly, it seems possible that four Roush Fenway drivers will advance to NASCAR's playoff.

3. Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin took big hits in the points standings.

No two drivers were as frustrated on Sunday as Gordon and Hamlin. Gordon cut a tire early, slammed into the wall and finished 42nd. Hamlin, who was third fastest during Happy Hour practice on Saturday, blew an engine with five laps to go and came in 39th. Hamlin was so disgusted afterward that he said he didn't think his team deserved to make the Chase because his equipment keeps breaking down.

Hamlin might be right. This is the fourth time in the last eight races that he's finished 23rd or worse. This is not what you'd call being consistent. Hamlin has a tendency to point fingers at his crew when things go wrong, which causes the morale of his team to nosedive, which causes a freefall in the points. It's happened in previous years and it looks like it's starting to happen now.

Gordon fell from sixth to ninth in the standings. I chatted with him on Friday and he was at a loss to explain why he's struggled so much this season, a year after he set a personal record with 29 top 10s in 36 starts. It boils down to the fact that he and crew chief Steve Letarte are still searching for the right setup in their Car of Tomorrow. Can Gordon catch fire in the Chase? Sure. Is it likely? No.

4. Joe Gibbs Racing is in a heap of trouble.

You've got to hand it to the alleged rules-bender at JGR -- whoever he is -- because it takes plenty of chutzpah to do what NASCAR has accused JGR of doing. After the Nationwide race on Saturday, NASCAR officials prepared to put the JGR cars of Tony Stewart and Joey Logano through a horsepower test. (Stewart finished third while Logano came in seventh.) The issue of horsepower is a touchy one for the Toyota teams in the Nationwide series because last month NASCAR ordered the Toyota teams to take out 15 horsepower in its engines. The reduction came after Toyotas had won more than a third of the races.

This, apparently, didn't sit well with someone at JGR. After the race, NASCAR found magnets beneath the gas pedals on the two cars. The intent was to prevent the gas pedals from reaching the floor and therefore not allowing NASCAR to gauge the full capacity of the horsepower in the engines. Cheating in NASCAR is nothing new, but this was an egregious sleight-of-hand move. Expect NASCAR to hit JGR hard when it levies penalties early this week.

5. Casey Mears appears headed to Richard Childress.

With the announcement on Friday that Ryan Newman has signed to drive the No. 4 Chevy for Stewart Haas racing next season, there are only two top-tier rides yet to be filled for 2009. One is the fourth car being added by Richard Childress, and, according to multiple garage sources, it seems certain Mears will slide into that seat. (The other coveted ride is at Penske Racing, and likely will be handed to David Stremme, who's been a test driver for Penske this season.)

Mears, who finished 18th on Sunday, has been among the biggest disappointments of 2008. Teamed with crew chief Alan Gustafson, who guided Kyle Busch into the Chase in 2006 and '07, Mears has one top-five finish in 23 starts and is 24th in the points. More damning, Mears will be the only driver at Hendrick Motorsports who won't make the Chase. He is well-liked at Hendrick and by his sponsors, but the performance just hasn't been there.

So why, exactly, is he going to get another shot with a top-flight team? Simple: There's a dearth of quality drivers in the Cup series, and the Nationwide series is no longer the breeding ground for stock car talent that it once was -- Cup drivers now regularly drop down to dominate that circuit. Still, even with the scarcity of drivers, this will likely be Mears' last chance to prove he can win in elite equipment.