Carl Edwards usually is the forgotten man in the celebrity crossfire of the Joe Gibbs Racing Fab Four.

Ornery teammate Kyle Busch is the defending Sprint Cup season champion. Denny Hamlin is your Daytona 500 winner. Matt Kenseth is another former champ in the mix and the guy who got into quite a contentious snit with Joey Logano last season.

Carl Edwards may be the quiet guy of his racing team, especially with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth as teammates. But quiet has worked this season. He's already booked into one of the four spots that will decide the championship in the final race. Associated Press/Nam Y. Huh

IN THE CHASE

What: Sprint Cup Chase for the championship

Schedule: Friday, practice (1:30 p.m., NBCSN), qualifying (6:45 p.m., NBCSN); Saturday, practice, (3 p.m., NBCSN); practice (6 p.m., NBCSN); Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m., NBC.

Where: Phoenix International Raceway (oval, 1 mile).

Last year: Kevin Harvick had the dominant car but Dale Earnhardt Jr. won despite leading just 22 laps.

Last week: Carl Edwards won a rain-shortened race in Texas to get a spot in the championship next week.

Fast facts: Harvick, the 2014 champion, needs a win at Phoenix. But he has won six of the last eight races there. … Edwards and Jimmie Johnson have locked up spots in the title race. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin head to Phoenix just below the cut line for the final four spots.

And then there’s Edwards, the “Ringo” of the Fab Four. You might want to peek at the latest Chase standings. Edwards is the only one of those four who has secured a spot in next week’s Final Four after a rain-shortened victory at Texas. Two more slots are TBA as the gang gets back together in Phoenix this weekend before moving on to Homestead for the season finale.

But only Edwards and Jimmie Johnson, each with a third-round victory, have no worries. As things stand now, Logano and Busch have dibs on the last two slots. Of course, everything is fluid.

It’s a win-and-you’re-in scenario for the other six Chase drivers. Edwards can now afford to look ahead at his best shot for winning a title since 2011.

Edwards had a three-point edge over Tony Stewart back then in a different Chase format. But Stewart won the race and his third Cup title via a tiebreaker that was a heartbreaker for Edwards, still seeking his first Cup title.

“This is a guy that basically lost a championship in the closest battle ever,” said Steve Letarte, NBC Sports race analyst. “It went to a tiebreaker – race wins – and Tony Stewart owned it.

“You have to think Edwards has been reliving that. He can’t wait to get back. You heard it. He just wants a shot back at Miami for a championship.”

Yes he does.

“This is huge,” Edwards said after winning in Texas. “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. This is cool. This team has really worked hard all year and man, it’s just really cool. That’s all we said we needed was a shot and now we’re going to go to Homestead and we’re going to do what we have to do.”

It will likely stop short of a “boys have at it” mandate, given the two guys who officially have punched their tickets. Neither Edwards nor Johnson is the type to engage in bumper-car wars, although Busch and Logano have never shied away from contact when necessary.

For the record, there are two proverbial “nice guys” in this thing. Johnson will be looking for a historic seventh Cup title, which will put him right next to two icons of the sport – Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty – in the best-ever conversation.

Edwards likely will never be part of that conversation. He just wants to win a first championship.

“This was a great little gauntlet to run and we made it through and now we go do it at Homestead,” Edwards said.

On to Homestead it is.

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