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Carl Edwards has three reasons for walking away from racing

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Carl Edwards addresses the media at Joe Gibb Racing Headquarters to announce he’s not racing in 2017.

Columbia native Carl Edwards made it official on Wednesday from Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters that he will not race in NASCAR in 2017.

“I’m stepping away from full-time driving in the Cup Series. I don’t have any intention of going back to full-time racing.”

Edwards said there were three reasons for leaving:

1. Despite not winning a NASCAR championship, he’s satisfied with his career.
2. He wants to devote time to the people in his life. Carl said not only is racing a full-time job, but he thinks about racing 24 hours a day…he said he even dreams about it.
3. He wants to stay healthy. He knows there are inherited dangers with racing, but he’s come away healthy and he wants to do what his gut is telling him.

Edwards is not sure what he wants to do at this point. He is not entertaining any other offers at this time. He said that he doesn’t want to say the “R” word when it comes to racing, but he’d be open to working with Joe Gibbs in the future.

Listen to Carl’s full press conference (35 minutes)

[Read more…]

Carl Edwards will not race in 2017 #NASCAR season

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Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

FOXSports.com is reporting that Carl Edwards will step away from Joe Gibbs Racing and will not compete in the 2017 NASCAR season.

According to the website’s sources, Edwards will pursue outside interests.  A press conference is expected on Wednesday by JGR to announce Daniel Suarez as Edwards’ replacement.

While Fox Sports reported specifically the 2017 season, ESPN is saying that Edwards will officially retire.

The 37 year old Columbia, Missouri native has 28 victories, 124 top five finishes and 220 top ten finishes in 445 starts.  Edwards has had a few championship close calls.  In 2011, he and Tony Stewart tied for the championship, but Stewart won on a tiebreaker. In 2008, Edwards finished in second to Jimmy Johnson.  Last season, he crashed on a restart with ten laps to go at Miami as he was contending for a championship.

NASCAR 2017 schedule released on Thursday. Kansas will become second round playoff race (UPDATE)

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Kansas SpeedwayThere will be a change in NASCAR’s 2017 Sprint Cup schedule.

The second round of the 2017 playoffs will be changed with Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway swapping spots on the schedule.  Kansas will host the race next season when the championship field is cut from the 12 to eight drivers.  The 2017 season will open Feb. 26 with the 59th running of the Daytona 500.

“I would say it definitely adds a different layer of pressure for the competitors; I would say it adds certainly to the weekend and to the Chase overall,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Jim Cassidy said. “But at the same time it does not take away from, on the Talladega side, what the fans are going to get. To me, it’s good for the fans on either side because … no matter when you go to Talladega you’re going to see a product that is quite frankly some of the most popular racing that we’ve got on the circuit. Now with Kansas in that spot, you add another layer of complexity to a very compelling playoff format.”

Edwards rallied back to finish thirteenth, after starting on the Brickyard pole and racing near the top most of the day. Busch wins third straight

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Carl Edwards (19)

Carl Edwards (19) finishes 13th (photo/Jerry Coleman)

By Bob Priddy,  Contributing Editor

NASCAR)—Columbia driver Carl Edwards saw his chance for a historic victory at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway vanish when his car got loose during a late-race restart after a caution period.  Edwards had started from the pole and had run in the top five during most of the race.  He and then-leader Kevin Harvick started side-by-side on the restart but Edwards (in the 19) fell back rapidly when his car had a control problem in the first turn.

Edwards rallied back to finish thirteenth.

Edwards’ teammate with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch, outran Joey Logano on the final restart of the day to win the Brickyard 400. It’s Busch’s third win in a row, his fourth in the last five races.

Edwards had hoped to give Toyota its first win at Indianapolis. Instead, the honor went to Busch.

Joplin’s Jamie McMurray finished sixteenth, maintaining his position as the driver highest in NASCAR points without a win this year.  His points lead over Jeff Gordon improved because Gordon was involved in an early-race crash and finished 42nd, fifty-four laps down.  McMurray remains the only driver to win a race at the Indianapolis Speedway, which held its first automobile races in 1909.

NASCAR’s next race is at Pocono next week.

 

Top ten finish for Edwards in New Hampshire after leading the first 19-laps. Kyle Busch takes the checkered

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Carl Edwards led early, but teammate Kyle Busch took the win (photo/NASCAR)

Carl Edwards led early, but teammate Kyle Busch took the win (photo/NASCAR)

Columbia driver Carl Edwards started NASCAR’s race this weekend in first place but it was teammate Kyle Busch who finished there.  Edwards led the first 19 laps before Busch pulled ahead of him to claim the lead for the first time.

Edwards, not known as a weekly threat to claim the pole position, started first for only the fourteenth time in his 392 starts in NASCAR’s top series.  He finished seventh, continuing a mid-season resurgence after a mediocre year so far. Edwards has had back-to-back top-ten finishes after recording only three top-tens in the first sixteen races.

Joplin’s Jamie McMurray finished 26th, a lap down,  but still has more championship points than any other driver without a win this year and is still in the hunt to be one of the sixteen drivers who will enter the ten-race Chase for the Championship.  Four-time champion Jeff Gordon finished ninth at New Hampshire and has pulled to within one point of McMurray.  If the Chase began now, they would be seeded eleventh and twelfth.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s hot streak continued Friday afternoon, when Carl Edwards won the pole for Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Winner Kyle Busch picked up his third win in the last four races as he continues to charge back from injuries that kept him out of the first elven races of the year.  He has seven more races to accumulate enough points to be in the top thirty in the points standings, one of the qualifications for making the Chase.

Edwards, McMurray, and their competitors run in the Brickyard 400 next week at Indianapolis. McMurray won the race in 2010. Edwards chased Jimmie Johnson across the finish line in 2008 for his best finish in the race.

Bad pit stop cost Carl Edwards in rain shortened Michigan race. McMurray top-ranking driver without a victory

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The view down pit road as rain washes out the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

The view down pit road as rain washes out the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

By Bob Priddy, Contributing Editor

(NASCAR)—Mother Nature won at Michigan but Kurt Busch finished in first place.  Rain stopped the 400-mile Cup race at Brooklyn, Michigan before Columbia driver Carl Edwards couldn’t recover from a bad pit stop to climb higher among finishers.  NASCAR declared the race official after 138 of the scheduled 200 laps when a torrential downpour brought out the red flag for the fourth time.

Edwards led 42 laps and tried to stretch his fuel until the last storm hit the speedway but had to pit shortly before the deluge began.  He had consistently been in the top throughout the race.

Joplin’s Jamie McMurray put together another solid run, finishing 7th and strengthening his position in the points as the top-ranking driver without a victory this year.   Ten drivers, including Edwards, have at least one win this year.  The top sixteen drivers in victories or in points will qualify for the final ten-race competition for the championship.

(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden won his second Indycar race of the year, holding off teammate Luca Filippi on the streets of Toronto.  The two finished ahead of three Penske drivers who finished 3rd, 4th, and 7th.  Sebastian Bourdais, who finished fifth, and Tony Kanaan, who finished sixth, broke up the Penske train of Helio Castroneves, pole-sitter Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—Six racers named Unser have driven in the Indianapolis 500.  Three of them have accounted for nine wins.  But the starting fields for the Indianapolis 500 dating to 1963 had never included more than two.   But this weekend, FIVE Unsers drove together at the Indianapolis MoTor Speedway.

obby Unser, his father Bobby, Al Unser sr., his son Al Jr., and Johnny Unser. Al Sr., won the 500 four times.  Bobby won it three times.  Al Jr., won the race twice.  Bobby and Al Sr., competed against each other for several years.  Johnny Unser, whose father started the 1958 Indianapolis 500 and who died in a practice crash in 1959 at the Speedway, competed against Robby in one 500.  The speedway says John and Robby competed in one race together.  Al Sr., and Al Jr., also competed against each other.  The five Unsers drove vintage cars from the Indianapolis 500 for a couple of ceremonial laps during the weekend’s activities sponsored by the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association. Theevent drew more than 500 classic racing cars, some a century old.

Johnny, Robby, and Al Jr., were among the 33 former drivers from the 500 who competed in Sunday;s Pro-Am race on the speedway’s road course.  The race was won by 500 veteran Bob Lazier (whose son, Buddy, won the 500 in 1996) and amateur Jim Caudle, who co-drove a 1969 Corvette.

(LEMANS, FRANCE)—Porsche returned to the victor’s podium for the first time since1998 with a 1-2 finish in the LeMans 24-hour endurance race.  The Porsch 919 Hybrid uses a lithium-ion battery and a turbocharged V-4 engine. The win also was the first victory at LeMans for the three drivers who split the time behind the wheel:  NicoHulkenberg, Earl Bamber, and Nick Tandy.

The Porsche victory ended a five-year winning streak for Audi

Bob Priddy reports from the race track. McMurray and Edwards struggle at NASCAR’s All-Star event. The field set for Indy

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Jamie McMurray

Jamie McMurray (Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates)

(Charlotte, NC)–The stick and ball sports have their mid-season all-star games and so does NASCAR.   Neither of Missouri’s drivers, Joplin native Jamie McMurray and Columbia’s Carl Edwards, didn’t even come close to the million dollar check that went to eventually winner Denny Hamlin in Saturday night’s race in Charlotte.

McMurray finished 16th in the final after running 12th, 14th, 11th, and 15th in the four preliminary stages.

Edwards was 17th in the final ten-lap segment after starting slowly with 15th and 17th place finishes in the first two legs and improving to eighth and sixth places in the second two.

McMurray won the race last year.  Edwards won the 2011 race and pocketed the biggest paycheck in event history, $1,203,000.   Hamlin earned about $1.045 million Saturday nigtht.

McMurray, Edwards, and the other top NASCAR drivers will spend this week getting ready for the longest race in the series, next Sunday night’s 600-mile run.

(Indianapolis)—The field is set for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” the Indianapolis 500, but a trio of crashes forced Indycar to make last-minute changes to the cars that ended the possibility of the fastest field in almost two decades.

Two-time pole winner Ed Carpenter crashed yesterday (Sunday) morning while preparing to qualify.  His car flipped, landing on its side. He was not hurt.   His crash was similar to two others last week as cars sorted out new aerodynamic features installed only a few days earlier.  The cars of three-time winner Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden flipped during crashes last week.

The crashes forced Indycar to qualify with reduced turbocharger boost to engine power and with the same body configuration they will use during the race. The steps meant Scott Dixon’s pole-winning speed of 226.760 was well below the faster laps that had been turned earlier in the day.  Castroneves had a practice lap of 233.474 mph, the fast lap at the track since Eddie Cheever ran 236-plus during one lap in the 1996 race.

The 99th Indianapolis 500 begins at 11:15 a.m. CST next Sunday.

 

Carl Edwards to join Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015. Crew Chief to be named at a later date

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Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards will join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2015 season giving the organization four full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams.  The moves were announced today at the company’s headquarters in North Carolina, where JGR oversees Toyota drivers Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.   ARRIS Group, Inc. will sponsor Edwards in the No. 19 Toyota Camry for 17 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Edwards is currently eighth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings with two wins, five top-five and nine top-10 finishes thus far this season.

The 35 year old Edwards has 23 Sprint Cup wins in 360 career starts, all with Roush Fenway Racing. RFR announced earlier this season that Edwards would not return.  In 11 seasons, Edwards has finished in the top-five in points four times, including runner-up finishes in 2008 and 2011.  Edwards won the Nationwide Series title in 2007. He also has six career Camping World Truck Series victories.

Joe Gibbs Racing has won 114 Sprint Cup races and three championships (Bobby Labonte, 2000; Tony Stewart, ’02, ’05).

Edwards will drive the #19 car.

Jack Roush wishes Edwards’ move to another NASCAR team wouldn’t happen. Edwards’ move could mean a switch from Ford to Toyota

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Carl Edwards sits in the pit area prior to his running in the Brickyard 400. (photo/Rick Gevers)

Carl Edwards sits in the garage area after qualifying in the Brickyard 400. (photo/Rick Gevers)

Columbia NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will be moving to a different team next year–but he’s not saying which one.  He is however saying it’s on his own terms.

“Of course it’s my decision,” Edwards told FOX Sports 1’s “NASCAR RaceDay.”

Edwards has won 23 top-level races for Roush-Fenway Racing, but team co-owner Jack Roush did not list him as one of his drivers for next year. Team officials said Edwards had told them more than a month ago that he was negotiating with another team.

Edwards refused to discuss contract negotiations with Missourinet’s Bob Priddy, who was in Indianapolis, covering the race. Rumors have already been circulating for a few weeks about him going to the Joe Gibbs Racing operation, which is preparing a fourth car for next year.

Roush says he wishes the move would not happen, but he says Edwards is curious about what another team would be like. “I think Carl wanted to try something different before he saw his career get in its middle term and its final years,” he said.

Edwards has been with Roush throughout his NASCAR career, beginning in the trucks series, moving up to the present Nationwide Series where he was the national champion in 2007. All Edwards would say is that the deal for next year, but this is not the time to announce it.

If Edwards does move to Gibbs, he’ll become a Toyota driver. He has been a prominent face for Ford both nationally and in the Columbia area. It’s thought that Ford played a key role in his decision to stay with Roush three years ago.

Joe Gibbs Racing was founded by former NFL coach Joe Gibbs, who led the Washington Redskins to four Super Bowls, winning three. The team presently is made up of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth, who was an Edwards teammate at Roush.
JGR has won NASCAR’s top championship three times with Bobby Labonte (2000), and with Tony Stewart (2002, 2005).

 

Edwards ends 70 race drought, wins at Phoenix (VIDEO)

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Columbia native Carl Edwards vowed he would dominate at Phoenix and he was right. Leading the final 78 laps, Edwards pulled away on a late restart and ended his 70-race winless streak on Sunday at Phoenix.

“This win feels as good or better as any win I’ve ever had,” Edwards said.

That’s understandable following a rough 2012 season where Edwards missed the Chase. He won for the first time since Las Vegas in 2011.

“Last year we didn’t even make the Chase,” Edwards said. “For me to sit home while everybody was at the Chase stuff and in Vegas, that was a little bit of a shock to me and I did not like that at all. To get a victory puts us in better position to be in the Chase, it just feels good to win and I’m just very glad to be here.”

Top 10 finishers:

1. Carl Edwards, Ford
2. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
3. Denny Hamlin, Toyota
4. Brad Keselowski, Ford
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet
6. Clint Bowyer, Toyota
7. Matt Kenseth, Toyota
8. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
9. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
10. Jeff Burton, Chevrolet

Edwards got a nice push from his one-time bitter rival Brad Kesolowski.  Edwards talks about how and why those two have pushed that bitterness to the side.  Highlights of  Edwards’ press conference from NASCAR.com