Getting to Know Carl Edwards
The next installment in the “Getting to Know” series features Carl Edwards, a popular figure in the sport and a perennial championship contender.
Carl Edwards has been a fixture in the Sprint Cup Series and in Victory Lane for over a decade now, but how did he achieve the “All-Star” status he has held for several years?
Carl Michael Edwards Jr. was born on August 15, 1979 in Columbia, MO, the same town he would be raised in (that’s right, Carl is a Junior). One of the most fascinating aspects of Carl’s growth and development as a driver is how he put NASCAR and racing in general on the map in the city of Columbia.
Columbia, MO is a small city in the center of Missouri where the University of Missouri (Mizzou) and its athletics program dominate the market. Carl Edwards began his rise to NASCAR stardom on the small dirt tracks in the center of his home state, with his dad Carl Sr. building his son a go-kart at the age of 4.
Carl focused on his education while practicing in go-karts until the age of 15, when he used a fake ID to race at a track in Illinois where the minimum age requirement was 16. Carl would go on to win in his third start at the track. At 16, Edwards received his pilot’s license and was at a crossroads over whether to pursue a professional racing career or become a Navy pilot, and it is clear what path he chose.
After graduating high school, Carl decided to pursue an education at Missouri but realized that his racing career would conflict with his education. He decided to drop out after three semesters. After his mother provided him funding to drive a USAC car in 2001, he began to get noticed by some in the NASCAR world.
Truck Series owner Mike Mittler was struggling to find funding and decided to put Edwards behind the wheel in 2002 for a handful of races because of Carl’s passion. Carl raised some eyebrows by racing in the top 10 in the underfunded race truck and gaining a top 10 finish at Kansas. Jack Roush noticed Carl’s dedication and gave him a full-time ride in the No. 99 truck in 2003, where he would reach Victory Lane three times and gain a top 10 points finish.
It was from this point on that Carl Edwards saw a meteoric rise in NASCAR’s top levels, racing once again full-time in the Truck Series in 2004 once again winning three races and this time breaking the top 5 in points. While competing in the Truck Series, Edwards was given an opportunity to race in the Cup Series that same season replacing the struggling Jeff Burton in the underfunded No. 99 Ford, gaining attention from the garage area by getting a top 5 and 5 top tens in the final 13 races.
Suddenly, in just 3 racing seasons Carl Edwards went from a few races in the Truck Series to a full-time ride in the Cup Series in 2005 for Roush Racing in the No. 99 Ford. Carl would quickly become a new star on the top circuit winning his first race in a thrilling photo finish over Jimmie Johnson at Atlanta. He would go on to win at Pocono, Atlanta (season sweep), and Texas to accumulate 4 wins in his first full season and finish an astounding third place in points.
The man nicknamed “Cousin Carl” by being Ken Schrader’s cousin put racing on the map in his hometown of Columbia, where residents had hardly ever watched racing and even some considered it “redneck.” As Carl Edwards went from the small dirt tracks of central Missouri to Victory Lane at NASCAR’s top levels in just a handful of years, residents of the city began to take note of Edwards success and he garnered an enormous following of hometown fans. One of the predominant reasons why he became so popular in Columbia is the fact that he continues to reside there despite the majority of the NASCAR world living in the Charlotte area. Carl continues to live in his hometown and meet and interact with friends, fans, and family week in and week out, which has lead to the NASCAR following in the city.
Carl Edwards has been one of the most marketable and visible faces in the NASCAR world. His trademark backflip after victories helped him gain popularity in and out of the world, which began after nearly falling when celebrating for his first win in the Trucks in 2003. Carl was been on the cover of ESPN The Magazine and Men’s Health in addition to being in Subway and Super Bowl commercials because of his dedication to athleticism and physical training. He and his wife Kate Downey married in 2009 and have two children together, Anne and Michael.
Carl’s Sprint Cup career continued to rise after that amazing 2005 season. After a bit of a sophomore slump in 2006 which saw him fail to reach Victory Lane, Carl would go on to win 12 races over the next two seasons and come up just short of a championship in 2008 to Jimmie Johnson, who happened to be in the midst of his record-breaking championship run. He would also rack up victories in the Xfinity Series and a championship in the series in 2007.
That near miss in 2008 carried into 2009 and 2010 where Edwards struggled and failed to win a race until the penultimate race of the 2010 season at Phoenix. He would win the last race at Homestead as well and catapult into the 2011 season with momentum.
The 2011 season may be the one that Carl Edwards wishes he could try one more time. Carl had a solid regular season, earning numerous top 5s and top 10s and a victory at Las Vegas. It was in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup where Edwards had his best chance at earning a championship in his career thus far. Tony Stewart was dominating the Chase, earning 4 wins out of the first 8 races, but Carl Edwards was putting solid finish week in and week out leading the Chase by a narrow 3 points heading into the finale at Homestead.
Edwards knew all he had to do was finish better than Tony Stewart and he would be the champion. Stewart’s only guarantee would be in winning the race. The 2011 Ford 400 will forever be one of the best races in NASCAR history,
with Carl Edwards leading the most laps while Tony Stewart had to battle adversity coming from the back to the front twice in the race due to early damage. Tony would forge ahead of Carl on a restart with 37 laps to go on and win the race. With Edwards leading the most laps, the standings ended in a tie, with Stewart beating Carl out because of his 5 wins compared to Carl’s one. This battle was the fiercest in Sprint Cup Series history.
As was the case in 2009, the near miss of the 2011 season resulted in a struggle for Edwards in the following season. Carl would once again be winless in 2012, finishing a career worst 15th in points. 2013 saw a bit of a resurgence for Edwards with two trips to Victory Lane but a poor Chase led to a 13th place points finish, amid rumors of a team change after several years of Roush Fenway Racing dedication.
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The 2014 season saw a great deal of change for Cousin Carl. Carl would succeed once again in the No. 99 Ford earning two wins at Sonoma and Bristol and a top 10 points finish. The big news was the team change for Edwards, as he announced in July that he would be joining former Roush teammate Matt Kenseth at Joe Gibbs Racing, as Roush Fenway was on the decline and Kenseth saw immediate success after a move to Gibbs in 2013 (7 wins).
Carl Edwards would move to JGR in 2015 with a newly created No. 19 Toyota team with a new NASCAR sponsor Arris and a host of others on the fenders of the Toyota. Carl would have a successful first season with JGR, winning two marquee races in the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500, and just missing the final cut for the Homestead finale in a rain-shortened penultimate race at Phoenix. In all, Carl Edwards has earned 69 wins in NASCAR’s top levels, 25 in Cup, 38 in the Xfinity Series, and 6 in the Trucks, respectively.