Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards adds farmer role to resume
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Most NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers spent the past week making last-minute preparations for the Daytona 500 or getting one last chance to relax before the hustle and bustle of another season begins.
Carl Edwards bought a farm.
While most of his peers were either attending or watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, the Roush Fenway Racing driver and his wife went to an auction in central Missouri and bought a 425-acre farm.
“Somebody said, ‘Hey, there is this land being auctioned off, and I said, ‘Let’s go check it out.’ We get there, and I ended up buying it,” Edwards said.
Edwards, a winner of nine NASCAR Sprint Cup races last year and a favorite to win this year’s Cup championship, spent the day before Thursday’s Media Day in Daytona shopping for a new tractor.
“My friends all laugh at me about that,” he said. “I know nothing about farming, but I’m learning from my buddies. … I’m probably just going to operate the chain saw and clear trees and things like that. I don’t think I’ll be responsible for any planting or harvesting.”
Edwards plans to use the land for both hunting and planting crops, probably beans or corn, he said. He’s not a hunter, he said, “but I like sitting there and looking.”
“It looks like a nice, peaceful thing to go do on a Monday or Tuesday,” he said.
Edwards first became interested in farming last year when he hosted some of his Nationwide Series teammates from Roush Fenway Racing on some other land he owns in Missouri.
“They had a really good time,” Edwards said. “They planted the food plots and built deer stands and hunted for a week, and they loved it, so it will probably be something my crew guys will use more than me. It’s something different, something I’m learning.”
