FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
It's very hard to believe, but 22 races into the Sprint Cup season, Carl Edwards hasn't done a single backflip, his signature victory celebration. It's even more difficult to believe considering he had nine wins -- the most in the series -- in 2008.
Carl Edwards has agreed to do a biweekly diary Q&A with SI.com this season. Here's the latest edition of Kickin' It With Carl.
Carl Edwards was on top of the NASCAR world. Literally. This was late last January, and Edwards was flying his private jet over Lake Norman, N.C., the epicenter of planet NASCAR. Located just north of Charlotte, it's where more than 90 percent of the drivers, crewmen, owners and series officials live.
Darrell Waltrip looks at Carl Edwards and he sees the next best thing to the perfect driver. The three-time series champion said Edwards has the greatest collection of the most exquisite traits and characteristics of any driver in the Sprint Cup series. He is a virtual Frankenstein monster of abilities: skill, strength, aggressiveness, cunning and youth, for good measure.
Carl Edwards, one of NASCAR's elite, makes a living traveling at speeds upwards of 200 mph and is on the road more than 200 days a year. So when he wants to slow down, he heads to his hometown of Columbia, Missouri.
Five things we learned on a sunny afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway:
Looking at it from a wide lens, things look bleak on planet NASCAR right now. As many as 1,000 in the sport have lost their jobs in the last three months, former powerhouses like Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Petty Enterprises have been forced to merge with other teams to stay financially afloat, and it's probably only a matter of weeks before the Sprint Cup series fails to have a full starting field of 43 cars, something that hasn't happened since 1997. Yet if you take a close-up of what's transpiring on the track, 2009 has more compelling storylines than any other season since I started on the NASCAR beat in 2000.
It begins on Friday, the longest season in sports. The Sprint Cup cars will roar onto the track at Daytona International Speedway to practice for Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR's version of an all-star preseason game. Then on Sunday there's qualifying for the 51st running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15, the first of 36 points-paying races in a season that is already filled with more uncertainty than any in recent memory.
Carl Edwards was crestfallen. It was right there in front of him. It was his. And then it was snatched away. He paused, composed himself. Reconciled it. "That was a really good sandwich," he said, stunned as the waitress stealthed away a half-eaten grilled chicken on whole wheat and snap pea salad. "I wasn't done eating, guys."
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Carl Edwards has found a way to try to mask the frustration of his winless NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
It's very hard to believe, but 22 races into the Sprint Cup season, Carl Edwards hasn't done a single backflip, his signature victory celebration. It's even more difficult to believe considering he had nine wins -- the most in the series -- in 2008.
Carl Edwards has agreed to do a biweekly diary Q&A with SI.com this season. Here's the latest edition of Kickin' It With Carl.
Carl Edwards was on top of the NASCAR world. Literally. This was late last January, and Edwards was flying his private jet over Lake Norman, N.C., the epicenter of planet NASCAR. Located just north of Charlotte, it's where more than 90 percent of the drivers, crewmen, owners and series officials live.
Darrell Waltrip looks at Carl Edwards and he sees the next best thing to the perfect driver. The three-time series champion said Edwards has the greatest collection of the most exquisite traits and characteristics of any driver in the Sprint Cup series. He is a virtual Frankenstein monster of abilities: skill, strength, aggressiveness, cunning and youth, for good measure.
Carl Edwards, one of NASCAR's elite, makes a living traveling at speeds upwards of 200 mph and is on the road more than 200 days a year. So when he wants to slow down, he heads to his hometown of Columbia, Missouri.
Five things we learned on a sunny afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway:
Looking at it from a wide lens, things look bleak on planet NASCAR right now. As many as 1,000 in the sport have lost their jobs in the last three months, former powerhouses like Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Petty Enterprises have been forced to merge with other teams to stay financially afloat, and it's probably only a matter of weeks before the Sprint Cup series fails to have a full starting field of 43 cars, something that hasn't happened since 1997. Yet if you take a close-up of what's transpiring on the track, 2009 has more compelling storylines than any other season since I started on the NASCAR beat in 2000.
It begins on Friday, the longest season in sports. The Sprint Cup cars will roar onto the track at Daytona International Speedway to practice for Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR's version of an all-star preseason game. Then on Sunday there's qualifying for the 51st running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15, the first of 36 points-paying races in a season that is already filled with more uncertainty than any in recent memory.
Carl Edwards was crestfallen. It was right there in front of him. It was his. And then it was snatched away. He paused, composed himself. Reconciled it. "That was a really good sandwich," he said, stunned as the waitress stealthed away a half-eaten grilled chicken on whole wheat and snap pea salad. "I wasn't done eating, guys."
If there were an MVP award for this year's Chase, I would vote to give it to Carl Edwards. The man, quite simply, has been the only exciting thing about an event in which the probable outcome has been known for several weeks.
Five things we learned this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway:
Unless Jimmie Johnson suffers a collapse of historic proportions, the final three weeks of the 2008 Sprint Cup season will be little more than a high-speed victory tour for the number 48 team. The reigning two-time champ, who finished second in the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta
MILLINGTON, Tenn. (AP) -- Carl Edwards held off David Reutimann to win the Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 on Saturday, keeping alive his hopes for a second straight NASCAR Nationwide Series title.
I don't think I've ever borne witness to anything more bizarre than the schoolyard hijinks that went on last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. From the gossipy tales of name-calling and note-passing, to the sight of two of Cup racing's top drivers throwing down in the Nationwide garage, this year's Bank of America 500 was a race to remember.
Jack Roush has one team order: when racing a teammate for a win, don't wad the cars up into a ball ... until you reach Turn One past the checkered flag.
Greg Biffle was fed up. This was at Atlanta Motor Speedway last October. The week before, two of his teammates at Roush Fenway Racing -- Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth -- had been involved in an ugly post-race incident at Martinsville that was captured on video and posted on YouTube. In the grainy video a menacing-looking Edwards feigns a punch at Kenseth, who is sitting on the pit wall doing an interview. Kenseth flinches, then Edwards, who was upset with Kenseth because of earlier on-track incident, storms away into the Virginia evening, leaving Kenseth momentarily shaken.
The three combatants toddled into the media center of Richmond International Raceway on Friday, plopped behind a smallish table and instinctively checked to see if their microphones were live.
There's a certain decadent pleasure in it all. The thrill of the tussle. It's two Nile crocs and one water buffalo. The last beer in the fridge and two grabbing hands. Two candidates, one presidency.
NASCAR placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation Wednesday for the next six Sprint Cup Series races, the result of their on-track incident last weekend at the end of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway
Finally, NASCAR has a feud worth watching as the two best drivers in the series in 2008, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, let their real feelings for each other show at the end of Saturday night's race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Five things we learned this past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway:
Five things we learned on a blue-sky Sunday afternoon at Michigan International:
Carl Edwards was penalized 100 points for a loose oil tank lid following his win at Las Vegas in the third race of the Sprint Cup season.
You would have thought Carl Edwards was a politician by the way he shook hands, smiled his toothy smile and patted backs while striding down pit road at Talladega last Sunday, 20 minutes before the Aaron's 499.
Carl Edwards was the belle of the ball, the pick of the litter. Then Tony Stewart's flirtation with other race teams became garage knowledge and suddenly he was the back-up prom date.
Five things we learned on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway:
Four races into 2008, here are the four developing themes of the NASCAR season:
A wacky Wednesday off the track left Robby Gordon rejoicing, Carl Edwards stripped of his points lead and an appeals board making more adjustments than a stock broker on Monday morning.
LAS VEGAS -- As NASCAR leaves Las Vegas following an extended two-weekend Western swing, it's back to basics for the Sprint Cup teams as they return to the Southeast and what Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls two "real race tracks."
Is Carl Edwards on the verge of achieving superstar status, ready to take on Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a bona fide contender to win the Sprint Cup?
Although it's 60 miles from the center of the movie industry, Auto Club Speedway insists on promoting itself as "NASCAR's trip to Hollywood."
Five things we learned from the rain-delayed Auto Club 500 on Monday at California Speedway:
Carl Edwards is about to close the door on an important chapter in NASCAR history. The question is -- does anybody care how the story ends?
Two images from last Sunday's race in the rolling hills of southern Virginia revealed the difference between a championship-winning team and a team that is floundering.
So have you seen the video? You know the one I'm talking about-the creepy confrontation between Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. If you haven't yet, go here.
Five things we learned from a crash-filled afternoon Dover International Speedway on Sunday:
There were no reported incidences of throwing wrenches, loud voices or heads banging against the walls in the garage of Carl Edwards' No. 99 Ford at the California Speedway following the second Nextel Cup race of the season in February. Maybe nobody saw or heard them. This much seems certain: The frustration level from how they ran that day had the potential to incite that kind of behavior.
Five things we learned under the lights at Bristol Motor speedway on Saturday nights:
When Carl Edwards did a back flip off his No. 99 car last week after breaking a 52-race winless streak, he had an unlikely fan cheering him on.
As the sun set on the Irish Hills of Michigan Sunday, the Ford contingent from nearby Detroit was busy breathing a sigh of relief. Their car owner extraordinaire, Jack Roush, was smiling ear-to-ear, their fresh young talent, Carl Edwards, was back in Victory Lane, and their streak of victories at the two-mile oval in Brooklyn had reached seven out of the last 11 Cup events.
Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon have something in common more than just winning the last two Cup races -- great communication with their respective crew chiefs. Last week the key to Gordon's rain-shortened Pocono 500 win was Steve Letarte's pit strategy. Sunday at the Citizens Bank 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race, Bob Osborne was coach and cheerleader for Edwards, who hadn't been to Victory Lane in a Cup car since October, 2005.
In virtually every sport, the dreaded "sophomore slump" is an accepted rite of passage. Whether it's basketball or bocce, legend seems to dictate that athletes who have "rookie" removed from their title stumble and fall flat on their faces in their second year of play, done in by a combination of bad luck and poor performance.
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