SPRING BREAKOUT; Carl Edwards wins again, this time at Texas.(Competition)

Byline: AL PEARCE

We should have seen this one coming. Given their record this spring, it was obvious that Carl Edwards and team owner Jack Roush would win the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The signs were all there.

Edwards won the 500-mile race in February at Fontana, a track vaguely similar to TMS. A week later, he won the 400-mile race at Las Vegas, another track vaguely similar to TMS. He qualified fourth and ran well (leading before blowing up) in March at Atlanta, a track very similar to TMS. Seven of his 10 career wins, including Texas, came on 1.5-mile or 2.0-mile tracks where drivers balance raw horsepower and delicate handling. And Roush's Fords traditionally do well on those tracks.

"But I don't have any sense that I do anything or direct anybody to do anything special for here,'' Roush said after Edwards led 123 laps (including the final 107) to beat Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. "Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle have done well at these big, fast tracks, so there's a notebook to go from, a process that works better here than at most places. If I under-stood it, I'd apply it to Loudon and Martinsville, some of the places we struggle.''

There was no struggle here. Edwards and Kenseth were in the top 10, with David Regan 13th and Jamie McMurray 14th. Biffle was a top-10 runner before falling out late with engine problems. All told, RFR has nine top-10 finishes in this spring's four "intermediate-track'' races.

Pole winner Dale Earn-hardt Jr., Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Johnson and Kenseth shared the lead until Edwards took over at 215. Except for three laps as pit stops cycled through, he was there to stay.

"That was a really good car,'' he said in the understatement of the week. "There were a lot of cars virtually the same speed, so it was difficult getting track position. Once we got it, though, it was good in clean air.''