Charlotte, N.C. ? Carl Edwards’ car went spinning sideways down the track, knocked out of line by a hard hit from Jeff Gordon. His hands frantically working the steering wheel, Edwards kept his car off the wall, corrected it and continued on without bringing out a caution.

“He saved it, and it was one of the best saves I think I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Gordon, the four-time series champion.

The emergence of Edwards, and his ability to impress his peers so early in his rookie year, is just one of the many highlights of the first quarter of NASCAR’s season.

There’s been no talk of schedule realignment, no debate over the 10-race playoff format that determines the Nextel Cup champion and zero discussion about Brian France’s decisions as NASCAR chairman.

All the action so far has been on the race track, beginning with the season-opening Daytona 500 that set the tone for what has been domination by the teams from Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing.

Gordon, Hendrick’s top driver, won the Daytona 500 and has added two more victories since then. Teammate Jimmie Johnson has one victory and has been on top of the Nextel Cup points standings the past seven weeks.

Combined, the two Hendrick drivers have four wins in 10 races and the top two spots in the standings.

Roush Racing can top that. Its fleet of drivers has five victories — three from rising star Greg Biffle and one each from defending series champion Kurt Busch and Edwards, the rookie who has used his trademark celebratory backflip to become NASCAR’s newest Young Gun.

That makes Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing the only driver from outside those two camps to win a race this year. Dale Earnhardt Jr., former champions Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett and a host of others are scratching their heads as to how to catch up.

NASCAR nextel cup drivers Jimmie Johnson, left, and Jeff Gordon smile after qualifying for a race in this file photo. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates are thriving in 2005.

“We’re just having a period where we’re struggling,” Stewart said. “But, you know, you look at every one of the race teams out there, you look at Ferrari this year in Formula 1, for example, they’re not having a stellar year either. If we all knew what the common variable was, we would know what to do to fix it.”

Despite the early season dominance, not all is perfect with the Hendrick and Roush teams.

Johnson, considered a Golden Boy through his first three seasons, has been widely criticized by competitors this season for a series of on-track incidents. Earnhardt called him an “idiot” and blamed him for causing a 25-car accident in Talladega, and others were quick to pile on.

Johnson found the negative spotlight a bit uncomfortable.

“It’s tough,” he said. “As anyone can imagine, being in the center of bad press, it’s uncomfortable.”

And the Roush team has had to keep a close eye on Busch, who has been involved in at least three hard accidents this season, then lost his cool after wrecking on the first lap last week at Darlington.

Busch got into a dispute with NASCAR over track position late in the race and responded by using obscene language over his radio and throwing a water bottle at an official.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. watches the action in his garage at Daytona International Speedway in this file photo. Earnhardt has yet to win a race this year.

NASCAR called his behavior “not befitting of a champion” and gave him an official warning to watch his step from here on out.

The sanctioning body has continued its crackdown on bad behavior — as always, cursing and fighting is quickly punished. But NASCAR also toughened its stance on cheating this season, suspending three crew chiefs after a March race in Las Vegas.

An appeals committee overturned two of the suspensions, but upheld the four-race hiatus Todd Berrier was given for illegally rigging Harvick’s fuel tank.

It forced car owner Childress back on top of the pit box, where he coaxed Harvick to his first victory in more than a year while Berrier was watching at home on TV.

Aside from Harvick, the only other driver to come close to challenging the Roush and Hendrick teams was Ryan Newman. He had victory in sight at Darlington until a late caution regrouped the field.

Newman didn’t pit for tires, everyone else did, and Biffle snatched the victory.

So, Dodge drivers have yet to win a race this season, the year they unveiled their new Charger. Some have blamed problems with the nose of the Charger for keeping the Dodge drivers off Victory Lane.

Either way, the first quarter of the season can’t be considered anything but a disappointment for Evernham Motorsports drivers Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield, or the entire Ganassi Racing group of Jamie McMurray, Sterling Marlin and Casey Mears.

But they aren’t alone.

Earnhardt, expected to challenge for the title this season, got off to a terrible start and has had to claw his way back to ninth in the standings.

But that doesn’t even touch the miserable start of Bobby Labonte. The former series champion has had an engine problem, an accident, or an engine problem after an accident in seven of 10 races this season. Labonte has finished just three races this season and is 33rd in the current standings.

“I’m just saving myself to the end of the year,” he joked.