Catching up with ... Carl EDWARDS

Carl Edwards celebrates with his traditional backflip following his Busch victory July 15 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

After finishing a close third in the Chase for the Nextel Cup last season, the former Missouri dirt-tracker is in danger of missing the cut this year. His latest setback came at Pocono Raceway, where he finished 39th after being collected in a wreck triggered by Tony Stewart. He's 14th in the standings heading into the Nextel Cup off-week. He spoke with reporters, including Rick Minter of Cox News Service, in a teleconference last week.

On whether he'll be reunited with former crew chief Bob Osborne, who was shifted to teammate Jamie McMurray's team earlier this year, sometime this season: "Bob's going to stay with Jamie, and Wally [Brown] is going to stay with me. The thinking is that either guy would be great, but right now change for either of us may set us back farther than any long-term benefits to the change."

On whether he's progressed as quickly under Brown as he did under Osborne last year: "Bob and I were in kind of a unique position because both of us were fairly new. ...Wally came onto the scene and we didn't miss a beat, so it was surprising to me. I wasn't sure what would happen, but definitely this is the best it could go. ... This is better than I expected."

On friend and crew member Tom Jockey's beard, which he plans to let grow until Edwards wins a Cup race: "The beard is getting long. Somebody told him it was looking shaggy and he said, 'Man, it was looking shaggy three and a half months ago.' A lot of people wear beards real nicely. [Texas Motor Speedway President] Eddie Gossage has a great beard, but those guys trim their beards, you know. Tom, he's not trimming it, so it's just getting bigger and bigger."

On whether he considers his Cup program on track: "Our performance on the race track and the speed of our cars in practice and most of the races have been better than last season. Last year, we struggled so much at certain race tracks, like the road course at Sears Point, Dover, Martinsville, Bristol. Those were terrible. Now we've run better at all these places.We just have those bad days where we wreck on pit road or something like that."

On running well in both the Busch and Cup series: "The Busch Series is a blast. I mean, it's fun to do. I think that it lets me kind of keep focused on racing. ... If it weren't for the three wins in the Busch Series this year, I would not have won a race so far; so it helps me just on my confidence level and aside from all the on-track stuff."

On whether he worries about missing the cut for the Chase: "I think about it. I've done the mental exercises. I've thought about what it would be like both ways, and I definitely like the making-the-Chase version better."