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FORT WORTH, Texas — What was there for Carl Edwards to say?

A lot, but there was no need to yell at his pit crew after they cost him a shot at victory Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Edwards led as he entered the pits 30 laps from the finish but problems with the lugnuts cost his team time and he exited 11th. He finished 10th.

"We've got to all take a look and say, "Hey, we've got to fix this,' " Edwards said of the pit stop woes he's had this season. "These guys are doing the best they can in the position they're in but we've just got to be better."

Edwards said that injures have altered his pit crew — he had crew guys from another Roush Fenway Racing team on the crew last week at Martinsville — and kept him from having his regular group for a few weeks.

Edwards said there was no need to scream at his team as some drivers do.

"These guys want to win this race just as badly as I do, and we're all in this together," Edwards said. "They don't come yell at me when I hit the wall."

MORE PIT ROAD WOES: Carl Edwards wasn't the only Roush Fenway Racing team to have problems on pit road. Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle also saw their chances to win end on pit road.

Both Kenseth and Biffle had lugnuts fall of during pit stops with less than 100 laps to go. Kenseth entered the pits second and Biffle was fourth on lap 252 of the 334-lap race. Kenseth exited 15th and Biffle 11th.

The culprit was the glue used to attach the lugnuts to the wheel. Teams do this so the lugs are in place for the tire changer to tighten on a stop. The problem is the lugnuts are glued before the race. The glue can become brittle during a long event and it can be easier for the lug to fall off when the tire carrier puts the tire on the car.

So, instead of a possible win, both teams wonder what might have been as Biffle finished third and Kenseth placed fifth.

"The end result is disappointing, we don't come here to run (third)," said Greg Erwin, crew chief for Biffle. "You can't run for championships finishing (third) with first-place cars."

Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief for Kenseth, was disappointed but also acknowledged that a fifth-place finish was a good turnaround for a team that hadn't placed in the top 10 since opening the season with wins at Daytona and California.

NEW STRATEGY: Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished 20th, said his team will begin focusing more on qualifying setups at upcoming races to help with track position.

Earnhardt and others have talked about how difficult it is to pass, thus where one starts matters more, he says. All of the top five finishers in Sunday's race started 14th or better. Earnhardt started 20th and has not started better than 14th in a race this year.

"We were really fast, just started way back there and was running way back there all day," he said. "You've got to start up front if you want to finish there."

Earnhardt said his team used to arrive at a track with the car in its race setup.

"Now we're done with that," he said. "We're going to just show up in qualifying trim for a while and try to get better qualifying positions."

PIT STOPS: The 28 lead changes Sunday were a season-high for a Cup race. ... Jeff Gordon earned $541,874 for the victory. ... Mark Martin finished sixth for his third consecutive top-10. ... Juan Pablo Montoya finished a season-best seventh. ... Pole-sitter David Reutimann rebounded from a pit road penalty that cost him a lap to place 11th.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com