Osborne happy to be back on top of No. 99 pit box

RICHMOND, Va. -- Forget about the fact that Carl Edwards' Sprint Cup qualifying effort on Friday at Richmond International Raceway, 19th, was his worst in eight attempts at the three-quarter-mile oval.

Edwards wrote that off to a change in the Goodyear tire the team used to log second and sixth place qualifying efforts in Richmond's two events last year -- and the fact that his first qualifying run of the day came in, well, qualifying for Saturday night's Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400.

Edwards and his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford team were happiest to have crew chief Bob Osborne back at the track for the first time since Osborne was given a six-race suspension following the third race of the season, Edwards' victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

That victory was actually the second consecutive for Edwards, who led the Sprint Cup driver standings after the Vegas win, only to be hit three days later with a 100-point penalty, along with a 100-point deduction for owner Jack Roush, and Osborne a $100,000 fine and suspension after the car's oil tank reservoir cover was missing in post-race inspection.

Osborne's suspension from NASCAR ended Wednesday, and Edwards was happy to have Osborne's familiar face in his garage stall Friday morning at RIR.

"It's good to have Bob back," Edwards said. "To have [engineer] Chris Andrews and [Roush Fenway general manager] Robbie Reiser on the box and have Bob back at the shop working, I think it showed the depth of our team, but it's definitely good to have Bob back.

"We won a lot of races together and at least Robbie won't be calling me Matt [Kenseth, Reiser's driver when he worked as a Roush Fenway crew chief] on Sundays, so it's good [laughing]."

After one day back, Osborne said his absence, and Reiser being on the box on race days but back in his GM role during the week only showed that the former Roush Fenway crew chief, who won the final Winston Cup championship with Kenseth in 2003, was in the right place.

"He is doing the things that we all wanted to take place, but we've never had the time to do," Osborne said of Reiser's current role. "He's improving the production side of the company -- the procedural side of the company.

"There are a lot of things that go into running a race team, and a lot of times you've just got to make due with stuff because you don't have time to adjust it and make it right.

"Now that he's been on the side that I've been on, he's experienced all that and now he's taking all that experience and applying it and improving everybody's race program, company-wide. His place is as general manager, now."

Along with figuring that out, Osborne said the forced absence, the first in his career, was the "toughest thing I've ever had to do in racing." (Continued)