Carl Edwards ready to meet injured fan at Talladega Superspeedway
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards is 10th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading into this weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
TALLADEGA, Ala. – If Carl Edwards wins Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, he won’t be keeping the trophy.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver will give the hardware to Blake Bobbitt, the 18-year-old woman who was injured when Edwards’ car crashed into the trioval catchfence after contact with Brad Keselowski while battling for the lead on the final lap of the Talladega race in April.
Bobbitt, who lives in nearby Rogersville, Ala., suffered a broken nose when she was hit by a piece of metal. She was rushed to a local hospital where she underwent reconstructive surgery.
Bobbitt, who has since celebrated her 18th birthday, is scheduled to meet Edwards before Sunday’s drivers meeting at the track.
“It’ll be cool to just get to talk to her,” Edwards said on Friday at the 2.66-mile oval. “We’ve [text-messaged] a little bit and she’s sent me some photos and stuff so I at least know what she looks like, so if I see her somewhere I can say, ‘Hey.’
“It’ll be cool to meet her. I don’t have anything planned just yet, but I already know if I can win this race that trophy’s going to her for sure. That’d be the best thing to give her.”
NASCAR has brought a restrictor plate with smaller holes to Talladega this time that will create less horsepower. Asked on Friday if he believed the new plate might have prevented his wreck in the spring, Edwards said it’s possible.
“I think the smaller plates will keep the pack together more,” the driver of the No. 99 Ford said. “My incident with Brad in the spring was just two cars. That’s all it took was two cars there, so in that respect I believe that with the smaller plate those two cars – Brad’s and mine – would have been going slower so maybe it would have been better. There would have been less chance of the car leaving the ground, so in that respect it’s good.”
But Edwards notes that keeping the cars bunched in tighter packs can also have a downside.
“It would be so neat if instead of plates we could come here with a narrow tire that’s really hard or spray water on the track or do something to make it so that you had to lift off of the throttle and the cars would get separated and maybe they could run in smaller packs,” he said. “That’d be a lot of fun, but as it is right now we’re stuck into one big pack.
“The smaller plate is going to magnify or amplify the chance for that.”
