Trip to desert should bring drought on complaints

Thankfully most of the noise at Phoenix International Raceway will come from the cars and not the drivers.

Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 marks the third appearance for the new NASCAR Sprint Cup car at the 1-mile track, which made its debut in the desert last year with flying colors.

Jeff Gordon says 'Texas is behind us,' he's focused on Phoenix. (Getty Images)

So the complaints from drivers criticizing the new car should be at a minimum, unlike last week's moaning in Texas.

While many of the circuit's stars are lobbying for NASCAR to make changes to the car in hopes of making them easier to drive, at least one driver is content.

Not surprisingly that's Carl Edwards, who has three wins in the first seven races of the season and is by far the hottest driver on the circuit.

All three of Edwards' wins have come on intermediate tracks -- California, Las Vegas and Texas -- that have confused and aggravated nearly every other driver and crew chief in the garage area.

But even though the No. 99 team has figured things out in the early going, Edwards isn't taking anything for granted.

"Listen, I'm well aware that it takes everything being perfect in these cars to go fast, and we've got to stay on top of that because some of the guys that are struggling, it's not because of the way they're driving the cars, it's because it's something they haven't got figured out, and that could happen to us just as well," said Edwards.

"There have been a bunch of times where we've been lost. At the beginning of the year, it seemed like every time we were lost, so I'm aware of that and we've got to stay on top of it. It's a knife-edge. You've got to have everything perfect."

Ryan Newman put together a perfect lap in Thursday night's qualifying session to earn the pole -- the 43rd of his Sprint Cup career -- for Saturday night's race.

It was a nice rebound for Newman, who was hit with a 25-point penalty and fine when his car failed post-race inspection at Texas after his fourth-place finish.

But the Daytona 500 winner, who is off to his best start in three seasons, is trying to put that indiscretion in the rearview mirror and concentrate on winning his first Cup race at Phoenix.

"We had a really good run at Phoenix last fall," said Newman, who has three top five finishes in 11 career PIR starts. "The good runs we had at the end of the season last year really helped build momentum for this year's team going into 2008. We had a good test at Phoenix, and I think we learned a lot, which is going to help us this weekend. The great thing about the No. 12 Alltel team is that Roy (McCauley, the crew chief) and the guys have done a great job of adjusting on the car through practices and the race to give me a car each week that I can contend with."

Defending Phoenix race winner Jeff Gordon is hoping he can contend Saturday night after a disastrous week in Texas. The four-time champion battled a bad-handling car all weekend before finally hitting the wall on lap 110 and finishing 43rd, only the second last-place finish of his Cup career.

Gordon is ready to turn the page and try for two straight spring triumphs in Phoenix.

"Texas is behind us," Gordon said. "We always try to forget about the last race -- no matter the result -- and concentrate on the next one. We'll definitely try to figure out what the problem was in Texas so that it doesn't occur again. But our focus right now is on Phoenix and getting the best possible result."

Gordon had struggled at Phoenix until last year when he scored his first Cup win in 17 starts at the Arizona track. PIR's unique layout and oblong oval configuration is a challenge unlike any other on the circuit.

"This track is tricky, and it really challenges everyone," Gordon said. "Turns 1 and 2 are banked, while 3 and 4 are flat. And the groove really widens out during the race. It's a track where we always seemed to run well, but we just never could get that victory until last year."

Gordon's teammate Jimmie Johnson also had a desert drought going until last season. Johnson finally broke into the PIR win column in last fall's race and is hoping that momentum -- and the knowledge gained in the win -- will lead to back-to-back victories Saturday night.

"We've been making our stuff better and better each week," Johnson said. "We're back on a short track where I think last year we showed that we have the success on short tracks; even the few that we've had this year, we should be right there in the thick of things. We're looking forward to a good performance."