Despite an early season shakeup that saw him lose his crew chief to teammate #26-Jamie McMurray, #99-Carl Edwards heads into Sunday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway just outside the top 10 in the Nextel Cup standings. And now, team owner Jack Roush might reunite Edwards with crew chief Bob Osborne for the stretch run to NASCAR’s version of the playoffs. In an attempt to spark his team’s performance, Roush made another of his trademark crew chief swaps in April, moving Osborne from Edwards’ #99 team to McMurray’s #26. Wally Brown, the lead engineer on Edwards’ team, was promoted to become Edwards’ new crew chief. But those moves might turn out to be temporary. Edwards said Saturday that Roush made the moves on a 90-day provisional basis, and expects to meet with Roush soon to re-evaluate the changes. “The 90 days is up this week, so I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do,” Edwards said. “I’m sure we’ll have a meeting about it. Hopefully I get a say in this one.” And if Edwards does have his say, will he ask to have Osborne back or stick with Brown? “I don’t know yet,” Edwards said. “I just have to sit down and think about it. I’ve been trying to just go along and work and not worry about it too much. I guess we’ll just all sit down and talk as a group – we all know each other really well – and decide what’s best for everybody and go on.” Roush said reuniting Edwards with Osborne is a possibility. “There is a chance,” Roush said. “It’s not been on my mind, but there is a chance.” Roush said he has been pleased with the results of his changes so far. His main goals were to have Osborne work with McMurray, who joined the team in the offseason, to get him used to driving cars that are built and set up more closely to those of his teammates.(Associated Press)(7-9-2006)
