Carl Edwards: 10 Defining Moments In His NASCAR Career

Close But No Cigar (2011)

It has to be a miserable feeling when much of your career is defined by being the guy that came so close, but was never able to win the big one. Unfortunately for Carl Edwards, that is exactly what his career will probably be defined by after he retired from NASCAR during the 2017

With that being said, one of the moments he came closest to finally etching his name into the history books was during the 2011 Daytona 500. Of course things didn’t start out well for the former Roush Fenway Racing driver as he was struggling to make his way up through the pack in the final laps of the race and might not even have made it into the top-five if it wasn’t for a stroke of luck.

Edwards got that luck on that final restart of the race when Kurt Busch pushed the issue and moved to the middle lane of the track, which bunched up several of the top running cars in the race. Edwards then bided his time Shortly after that incident occurred, Carl Edwards starting catching up with the letters with a little help from drafting partner, David Gilliland.

It then all came down to the final two corners of the race where Edwards and Gilliland were able to ricochet passed Stewart and Montoya for the third and fourth position and then quickly set their sights on the leaders. There wasn’t enough time however as Edward desperately tried to get past Bayne in the final stretch of the race, but was boxed in and unable to make the move he needed to win.