Carl Edwards suffered through another tough night in the Southern 500 Presented by GoDaddy.com at Darlington Raceway but remains optimistic things will improve for the Roush Fenway Racing team.
Troubles on pit road and finally a trip into the wall added up to a struggle for the No. 99 Ford driver.
"We have continued troubles on pit road," Edwards said. "What I am confident in is the process. We just need the time now. We need Brandon to develop as a tire changer, and he needs to work with the guys and everybody needs to develop that chemistry that makes them good on pit road. We are a long ways from where we need to be, but, hopefully, the process we have in place works."
Edwards doesn't believe the pit road issues will remain and says his pit crew pits in the time behind the scenes to stay sharp.
"The problem is not practice," he said. "They are decent at practice. The problem is working together in the hostile environment that is the race. I stand behind my guys 100 percent. ... We just have to figure out how to get them to work well together at the race."
Edwards is hoping that improvement will come as soon as this week in the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"It would appear that whatever happens at the race track is giving them a hard time," he said. "I talked at great length with Robbie [Reiser] and the pit-crew coaches. We do have a great way for the guys to practice; now they do two-a-days, practicing more. Hopefully, we don't have any problems with that. They are working hard. It's just going to take time. Either they can do it, or they can't. Time will tell."
