Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 from Phoenix International Raceway seemed to be going Carl Edwards’ way once again as the driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion was in contention for the lead much of the early going.

After starting 3rd, Edwards was quickly battling Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson for the lead and appeared to have one of the best cars in the field.

Edwards relinquished second spot on lap 111 to hit pit road for the second time in the event. This is where things started going south for the Roush Fenway Racing driver.

As Edwards’ crew completed the stop, Joe Nemechek brought out the third caution of the night after hitting the Turn 1 wall. This allowed the lead lap cars to pit under the yellow flag without losing a lot of spots as Edwards had.

To make matters worse, the No. 99 was ordered to the tail end of the longest line after being penalized for having a crew member over the wall too early. Edwards soon found himself in 33rd place and was quickly one lap down.

Never one to give up, Edwards fought back and earned the free pass on lap 161 when Elliott Sadler blew an engine, bringing out the 6th caution of the day. The driver of the No. 99 methodically worked his way through traffic and was back in the top-10 by lap 244.

Edwards hit pit road for the final time on lap 304 for just a splash of fuel and was back on track en route to a fourth place finish.

“We had some sort of miscue, we got a penalty and then one more problem in the pits, but Robbie made a great call for two tires to get us back on the lead lap,” Edwards told explained after the event. “It’s good to know we can be that fast at track other than a mile and a half. That bodes well for the rest of the season.”