Notes: Roush Fenway catches up to others in COT

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Carl Edwards ran 83 laps in Friday evening's Happy Hour practice for the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway; but while that put him in the bottom third of the cars that ran the most laps, he was at the top of the sheet after 65 minutes of practice.

Earlier in the day, Edwards was just as happy about his No. 99 Roush Racing Ford, which was 14th in the opening practice, before Edwards qualified seventh for Saturday night's event.

"Our Office Depot Fusion was really fast," Edwards said. "Bob Osborne [crew chief] and everybody did a really good job and the car seems pretty fast."

Edwards' best Happy Hour lap was 16.286 seconds, an average speed of 117.819 mph. But in typical Bristol fashion, two-tenths of a second covered the first 21 positions on the speed chart.

Jeff Burton (101 laps), Kevin Harvick (47), Denny Hamlin (93) and Bud Pole winner Kasey Kahne (74) rounded out the top five, proving there was more than one school of thought on how to get it done. Defending race winner Matt Kenseth ran 112 laps, high for the session, and was 16th on the chart.

"You just never know -- it's real competitive and you never know when you're gonna hit it right or be off," Kenseth said. "I feel a little better about our Car of Tomorrow stuff. Carl ran really well the last couple of races and Dover was a pretty decent race for us, so I think we're making progress.

"I've been pretty happy with the car most of today. It's been a lot better than I expected and it's actually a lot better than my Busch car has been this weekend, so I feel all right about it right now."

Mark's the man?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Bristol that he's totally cool with his decision to go to Hendrick Motorsports and get a new number for next season; and while he said he may never get used to the fact that after this season he'll no longer drive the No. 8, which will remain with Dale Earnhardt Inc., he's good with Mark Martin possibly using that number for at least part of next season.

Earnhardt said Martin wouldn't have any concern about driving "another driver's number," particularly one with as ardent a fan base as Earnhardt has proven to carry.

"Mark wouldn't do it if he didn't want to do it -- he's been around this sport for a long time and he's pretty smart," Earnhardt said. "I'm sure he'll want to talk to me [about it].

"It's cool. I'd rather have Mark do it than anybody else. There's probably a lot of guys I'd hate to see in there. Mark's always been really, really respectful. That's all that matters to me."

Kenseth pumps crew

Often this season, the Sharpie 500 defending champion Matt Kenseth has knocked his racecars but praised his Roush Racing pit crew and team for delivering good finishes -- which equates to eight top fives and 15 top 10s this season.

"Last week I felt we had a car that could win and I ran it in the wall, so that wasn't one of those weeks," Kenseth said, laughing. "[The crew] have always been good at that and Robbie [Reiser, crew chief] has been good at calling the races and making sure we position ourselves the best we can no matter how we're running all day -- to try and get ourselves positioned the best we can for the rest of the race -- so they've been good at that. (Continued)