NASCAR: Is there any truth to Carl Edwards return rumors?
By Asher Fair
Carl Edwards is one retired NASCAR driver who fans can’t seem to stop talking about potentially returning. But is there any substance or truth to these rumors whatsoever?
Not a day has passed since Wednesday, January 11, 2017, when Carl Edwards unexpectedly announced his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series after spending 12 seasons as a full-time driver in the sport, without rumors that the 28-time race winner may return to the series.
No matter how much time has passed between then and now, fans remain convinced that Edwards hasn’t truly hung up his helmet for good.
A recent article posted by pop culture website TheThings titled “An Update On 20 Recently Retired NASCAR Drivers” included a paragraph about Edwards and further fueled this speculation, even as we near almost three years since he retired not even two months after coming close to winning his first championship.
Contained in this paragraph about Edwards is the following line.
"“He talked to ESPN on how he ‘still gets the bug’ and will do a couple of races in 2020 to show he couldn’t really get away.”"
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These “couple of races” certainly haven’t been confirmed by anybody, at least not publicly.
So is there any substance or truth to this rumor?
The 40-year-old Columbia, Missouri native hasn’t said anything about coming back to NASCAR next year, although he refuses to rule out a return. But at the same time, he has stated that is not interested in returning to the Cup Series at this point.
There certainly haven’t been any confirmations from any teams about Edwards, either; not in the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series or the Truck Series.
In fact, the only “confirmation” about Edwards’s NASCAR future came from Wood Brothers Racing, which responded to fans who inquired about our April Fools’ Day article stating that Team Penske had purchased the one-car team to field the #21 Ford for Edwards next year, presumably without reading the April Fools’ Day disclaimer contained in the article.
All these April fools jokes out here. Like any are as good as the one from 2015 when we said Landon was filling in for Blaney after he got hurt riding a bull in Tijuana. Man I wish I could find that pic.
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) April 1, 2019
OMG y’all. This Carl Edwards thing has as much truth to it as Beyond the Flag being bought out by Winston Cup Scene. I keep getting texts and tagged on FB with the story and it’s like ok, today is what day? lol
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) April 1, 2019
If @bobpockrass is willing to write about stupid lights every 5 seconds but won’t address this one, that ought to be clue numero uno. Lol. But anyway, yeah the hauler crash is real. https://t.co/LycOoiSxQ8
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) April 1, 2019
For all we know, the TheThings paragraph about Edwards could have been in response to this April Fools’ Day article without reading the April Fools’ Day disclaimer. But it really doesn’t matter; regardless, there is absolutely no backing to the idea that Edwards is slated to return to NASCAR in 2020.
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Maybe on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 there will be “confirmation” that Carl Edwards will drive for Team Penske in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, but that’s a story for another day — and only that one day.
Other than that, there is no substance or truth behind any of these rumors.