Carl Edwards unhappy with how Sunday's Talladega race ended

Carl Edwards is one driver left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup who seemed upset with the way Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway ended.

The race ended on a green-white-checkered restart, when Kevin Harvick's car, which had a failing engine under the hood, drifted up the track and hit Trevor Bayne, who spun and brought out a caution that concluded the CampingWorld.com 500.

Harvick's car wouldn't come up to speed on the restart, and had the race gone the scheduled final full two laps under green, he almost certainly would have finished at the end of the lead lap and likely would have been knocked out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Instead, Harvick limped around to finish 15th and made it to the Eliminator Round of the Chase with seven other drivers.

At the NASCAR Hall of Fame Tuesday, the eight remaining Chase drivers met with the media and race fans to kick off the Eliminator Round of the Chase. Most chalked up the Talladega finish to the pressures of the Chase format. Edwards was the lone dissenter, openly unhappy about what happened.

"It didn't feel right to me, watching it," said Edwards of the Talladega finish.

Edwards said he was unsure whether the contact between Harvick and Bayne was deliberate. Harvick has said it wasn't.

"There's really only one person that knows if it was intentional or not, and that was Kevin," said Edwards. "Man, I hope it wasn't. I've just got to hope for our sport and for all the hard work that everyone puts in and all that's on the line, that that kind of thing -- No. 1, I can see how you'd be tempted to do something like that, but I really hope that NASCAR makes sure that kind of stuff isn't commonplace, for sure."

Asked if the incident was a byproduct of the Chase format, Edwards said it was.

"Obviously, doing something like that is an option to keep yourself in that position," said Edwards. "But, man, that's -- to me, that's not what sports should be about. We've all done things in the heat of battle and taken advantage of situations, but I don't know why, that one just didn't sit right with me. That's about all I can say about it."