Carl Edwards meets with NASCAR officials; doesn't regret Talladega comments
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards has no regrets concerning his comments following last Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Scene
RICHMOND, Va. – Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards says he felt that he learned a lot after meeting with NASCAR officials Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla., about his last-lap crash at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday.
"It was really a good talk, and I think that we’re all on the same page and that we want to do whatever we can to make these races as safe as they can be for everybody – the fans and the drivers and all that," Edwards said. "We’ve come a long ways in the last however-many years, but there’s still stuff that can be done. All we did was talk about things that really needed to be done, and they’re working on ideas of things to be done, so I’m real excited about seeing what they come up with and, hopefully, it’s stuff that keeps wrecks like that from happening.”
Edwards and team co-owner Jack Roush went to Daytona to speak with officials about the incident that sent his car sailing into the frontstretch catch fence. Edwards was racing for the win on the final lap when he made contact with Phoenix Racing's Brad Keselowski. His car became airborne and then hit the car of Ryan Newman, sending Edwards’ car into the catch fence.
Debris from the car or the fence resulted in injuries for seven spectators, and Edwards said he had spoken with one of those injured, a 17-year-old girl who was hospitalized with an apparent broken jaw after the incident.
Edwards says that he did not offer specific suggestions for NASCAR officials since he's not an engineer, but he says he has his opinion on where the problem lies.
"The bottom line is unless you take the banking out of that race track or we don’t go race there, you’ve got this big problem trying to keep the cars apart, keep them slow, and that’s the battle," he said Friday at Richmond International Raceway, site of this weekend’s Crown Royal/Russ Friedman 400. "There’s history there [at Talladega], and the fans enjoy that, but there’s also the real problem of having a group of cars run like that, so it’s something they’ve worked on for a long time with restrictor plates, and they’ve worked on the safety stuff, but there are still things to be done. I don’t know exactly what it’s going to be, but I’m hoping that there’s something we can do.”
Edwards, who expects NASCAR to meet with other drivers, too, says that he has to "have faith that something will be done" at the track.
He doesn't regret his harsh comments made immediately after the race, either. At the time, Edwards said, "We'll race like this until we kill somebody."
And he isn't backing down.
"That’s how I felt, and that’s what I believe," he said. "I also believe that there are things that can be done. We’re all in this together – NASCAR, me, the owners, all the other drivers. No one wants to see anybody get hurt, but I think what I said needed to be said, and that’s how I felt at the time, and I hope people respect that.”
Other drivers have, pointing out that Edwards had a unique perspective on the situation.
"I climbed out of my race car, good and mad after last weekend with all that went on, and I'm sure some of those emotions were in there for Carl,” said Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson, who was also caught up in a wreck in the race. “And being the guy that was in that car landing on top of the wall and into the fence, I'm sure he sees things differently than the rest of us do. And I kind of thought he was speaking more on the fact of the fans, and he got out and ran to the start/finish line like a ‘Talladega Nights’ move. So I took it more as hurting someone else; maybe not the drivers, but someone else."
Earlier this week, Edwards said he took time to visit with the teen injured in his crash.
"I talked to her mom first because [her] jaw is wired shut, so she couldn’t talked much, but her mom was real cool, and she just thanked the Lord for shining down on her and thanked everybody for their support and their prayers, and then I talked to [her] and she was upbeat about it," he said of the phone conversation. "She was mumbling a little bit, but she seemed really cool. She’s a 17-year-old girl and I hope she comes out of this all right in all ways.”
