Carl Edwards and #63 Teams’ Day Quickly Ended with Broken Crankshaft At Las Vegas

Carl Edwards and the MB Motorsports team had high hopes of making Carl’s 7^th and final 2002 NASCAR CraftsmanTruck race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway a memorable one. However, a broken crankshaft made for a very short day after completing only one lap.

The truck was tight during Friday’s first practice session so the team changed springs, shocks, tires, etc. as they struggled to make the truck handle better, ending up 21^st on the chart. The second practice saw several more changes that improved the handling moving them to 16^th fastest. Qualifying was strong, but not without some additional problem.

"Just before qualifying we borrowed a rear gear from another team to help us turn more rpm's," commented Carl. "Going down the straight-aways the truck was hitting the rev limiter in the ignition box. I'm not used to having two ignition boxes, so I never thought about switching to the other box, which had a higher limiter in it. I think we could have had at least a top-10 qualifying run if it wasn't for that. But we still qualified 13^th, so that shows you how strong the truck was. ”

Carl took the green flag and ran with the leaders down the backstretch. As the truck came out of turn 4 on the first lap, the front of the crankshaft broke off and fell under the truck, ending the day and leaving the #63 Ford Truck finishing in 36^th place. Carl was able to pull the truck onto the apron and behind pit wall.

"We have never had that happen to us before," stated owner and crew chief, Mike Mittler. " We are very thankful that no one was injured and that it didn't cause an accident. The broken crankshaft actually did a lot of damage to the underside of our truck. It heavily damaged the lower right A-frame mount, the right side headers, and punctured a hole in the right side floorboard. But those are repairable."

"Although our day wasn't the best, we congratulate Jamie McMurray on winning his first NASCAR race," continued Mike Mittler. "Jamie started his NASCAR career driving our truck in 1999 and 2000. We are very proud of Jamie and know that he will win many more."

MB Motorsports is actively seeking marketing partners for the 2003 season. Carl Edwards will be in the #63 Ford Truck and compete for the 2003 rookie-of-the-year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Contact MB Motorsports (800-467-2464 or email bpolitsch@mbracing.net) for motorsports marketing information and opportunities.