A string of mediocre-to-poor finishes has Columbia NASCAR driver Carl Edwards on the verge of falling out of the top-12 standings.  He was fourth after the first four races of the season, but his best finishes have been two tenth-places since then.  He finished 32nd after a crash Saturday night at Darlington, and was 24th after the big flip at Talladega. His average finish for the last six races is 19.5.

Edwards is just seven points ahead of Clint Bowyer, only 16 ahead of 14th place Juan Pablo Montoya, and only 329 points ahead of David Reutimann (root-a-mun) in 15th.    He has to stay in the top 12 if he’s going to be qualified to run for the championship in the last ten races of the season.

The NASCAR Showdown and All-star race is this Saturday night.

NASCAR driver and Columbia, Missouri native Carl Edwards is known for his back flips after winning races, and it looked like he was in line for another famous flip and he was…it just wasn’t the type he was expecting.

Leading at Talladega, Edwards in his 99 car tried to hold off Brad Keselowski down low.  Keselowski bumped Edwards from behind and as Edwards spun, he was hit again.  This time his car went spinning in the air and hit the fence along the car’s roof sending fragments of the sheet metal into the crowd.  Edwards’s car came to rest and he got out of the car and walked to the finish line.

As far as the fans, there were no serious injuries.  Seven were treated with one woman being flown to a Birmingham hospital for what was being reported as a broken jaw.   Check out video of the crash from NASCAR.com .

With 48 laps remaing, Matt Kenseth was declared the winner of the 2009 Daytona 500 after a lengthy rain delay.  This is the fourth Daytona 500 to end early due to weather.

For the local drivers I was following.  Joplin native Jamie McMurry finished 37th down 13 laps.  Columbia native and Sprint Cup runner-up Carl Edwards finished 18th picking up 109 points behind Kenseth’s 190.

This was Kenseth first Daytona win in 10 races.  The bonehead driver of the race without a doubt is Dale Jr.  Not only did he miss his pit box and need to loop around again, he stopped on his line on another pit stop and was docked a one minute penalty.

However, his wreck when he turned into Vickers knocking out race leader Kyle Busch was unbelievable.  The drivers were saying Jason Leffler in the Nationwide series was penalized five laps for something similar, but not as harsh as what Junior pulled.

Junior is and always has been overrated.   He got a lot of sympathy support after his father’s death and many fans rallied around Junior to continue the legacy.  Those are big shoes to fill and Junior is proving as time goes on, he’s not the same driver his father was.

Missouri natives Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards fared well in the Daytona duels yesterday.  The starting field is set with Martin Truex and Mark Martin on the front row.  Edwards will start 16 ^th and McMurray 21 ^st .  The Daytona 500 goes green at 2:30 on Sunday.

In the first duel, Jeff Gordon finished first, followed by Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.  Joplin native Jamie McMurray who started the first race toward the back, finished 10th after leading late in the race.

McMurray was leading with less than 10 laps to go, but lost the lead after the last caution flag came out dropping back.

In the second duel, Kyle Busch wons with Mark Martin finishing second after leading 36 of the 60 laps.  Brian Vickers finished third.  Columbia native Carl Edwards started 14th and finished 11th.

Daytona 500 lineup