NASCAR Texas 2013: Loose seatbelt doesn’t keep Carl Edwards from finishing third

At one point in the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway Carl Edwards thought he had an engine problem.

Another time his seatbelt came loose on a restart and he was forced to slow on the track as he made the proper adjustments.

All in all it was just another Saturday night Edwards en route to a third-place finish.

“It was pretty eventful,” Edwards said post-race.

Out of everything that transpired, however, it was the unfastened seatbelt that most alarmed Edwards.

The incident occurred when coming to the green flag following a caution he tucked on his straps to tighten them up. Somehow, though, he unhooked his belts, which according to Edwards he hasn’t done since he was running his dirt car.

“I told them out there, ‘I don’t know what the state laws are or whatever,’ but I went ahead and hooked them back up,” Edwards said. “That was pretty crazy”

Edwards was able to laugh it off afterward and cited driver error and not an equipment malfunction.

“It surprised me,” he said. “I will not be adjusting my belts coming to the green again. I haven’t had that happen. In all the races I’ve run in NASCAR that has never happened, so that was just icing on the cake tonight. I couldn’t believe it.”

Once his seatbelt was properly secure, he was able to focus his attention back on driving and quickly regained the track position he lost.

Although Edwards didn’t have a car strong enough to contend for the win, the fact that he was able to finish third was good enough for him; especially considering he felt like his team was throwing darts blindfolded throughout the night in an effort to make his car better.

“We’re in a little bit of trouble, honestly,” Edwards said. “We have to be better.

“I think a lot of people struggled, but we definitely struggled as much as anyone. I don’t feel ultra-confident if we had to come race here next week that we could pull off a third again.”