Sure, Jimmie Johnson won his third consecutive title. Yeah, Kyle Busch led the series standings for twenty-two weeks. But, no one had the kind of season Carl Edwards enjoyed. In only his fifth year in NASCAR's top division, the 29-year-old Edwards scored his best finish (second) in the series standings, coming home just sixty-nine points shy of Johnson in first.

Making things much more impressive, Edwards not only threatened to take the title in the Cup Series, but also on the Nationwide side of the garage. Falling short to Clint Bowyer by only twenty-one points, Edwards was clearly the biggest threat in that series as well.

Looking as if he could possibly earn his first Cup Series title, Edwards' championship hopes literally took a hit at Talladega and then died in Charlotte.

Racing towards the rear of the draft for much of the afternoon at Talladega, Edwards made his charge late in the race. Bump-drafting teammate Greg Biffle through the corner, Edwards triggered a massive pile-up that took out a number of Chase contenders - including himself - while Johnson was able to squeeze by the carnage.

The following weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Edwards started from the outside of row one, but did not stay there long. A vibration brought the No. 99 Ford Fusion to pit road for an unscheduled stop on Lap 52 and an untimely caution mired him a lap down as he exited pit road. As if things could not get worse, Edwards lost the spark under the hood and was pushed to pit road by a wrecker on Lap 67. The team went to work switching both ignition boxes and sent Edwards back on track sixteen laps down and in the 39th-spot.

Edwards rebounded from his two weeks of poor finishes by scoring three wins and five top-4s in the final five races of the year. While he was unable to earn his first NASCAR series title, the Missouri-native did not let the failure to win ruin his attitude.

"No matter what happens on Sunday," Edwards said while addressing the media in Homestead, "no matter how the championship results end up, 
we've won a number of races this year - I didn't know if I'd win in my career. The Nationwide Series has been great; we've won six races there (Edwards went on to win both the Nationwide and Cup Series events that weekend). I'm 29 years old and I've got I think the greatest crew chief in the garage, the greatest guys working on the cars and the potential for the next few years to be really tough on the race track. So, I look at this year, regardless of the result, as a year that we've really put ourselves in a position and reassured ourselves that we could compete for championships."

When looking at the numbers, Edwards' season could not have gone any better - except for maybe a championship or two. Nine wins, nineteen top-5s and twenty-seven top-10s on the Cup side clearly thrust Edwards to the top of the list when it came to the list of the year's top driver. Edward's numbers even outshined those of Johnson and the No. 48 group who scored seven wins, fifteen top-5s and twenty-two top-10s.

When comparing Edwards' combined statistics in both the Nationwide and Cup Series with those of Kyle Busch - his biggest competition - it is clear Edwards was truly the toughest to beat. In total, Edwards scored 16 wins, 38 top-5s and 49 top-10s; compared to Busch's 18 wins, 35 top-5s and 41 top-10s.

As Edwards pointed out that final weekend of the year, he will be the biggest threat to the competition over the next few years. A young, personable, sponsor-friendly, not to mention talented driver, Edwards has the potential to hit a streak much like Johnson has and just dominate the NASCAR ranks for years to come.