SEASON PREVIEW: Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards hungry to regain place among Sprint Cup’s elite
Carl Edwards is looking to return to his 2008 form, when he won nine races and finished second in points.
// Archive, NASCAR Illustrated
Feast or famine? Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards is, of course, looking for the former after surprisingly going winless in the Sprint Cup Series last season.
Edwards, a popular pick to win the 2009 Sprint Cup title, will not be burdened by such expectations this time around. That torch has been passed to Denny Hamlin, whom many now view as the most serious challenger to four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
Hardly slighted, Edwards doesn’t concern himself much with predictions – good or bad.
“I’ve been on both ends. I’ve had people say, ‘He’s gonna be the champion, it’s done.’ And then I’ve had people not expect anything,” Edwards said during Media Day last week at Daytona International Speedway. “That really doesn’t make a difference. That’s not what defines how we’re gonna perform. I have an inner drive and expectation that’s always the same.”
Edwards feasted on Cup competition in 2008, winning a series-high nine races before famine set in last season. Edwards’ struggles – his 14 top-10 finishes were down from 27 the season before when he finished as runnerup to Johnson in the standings – mirrored Roush Fenway Racing’s as a whole. The 30-year-old native of Missouri did make the 2009 Chase For The Sprint Cup, but finished a far distant 11th in points.
“Last year, we came in with the same expectation that a lot of you guys had of our performance. We thought we were gonna win 10 races, win the championship, it’s gonna be great and then we didn’t,” Edwards said. “Everyone on our team, myself, everyone has to be able to look at ourselves and say, ‘What can we do to be better?’”
Edwards finds himself on the eve of another whirlwind season. In addition to his Cup effort, he is running for another Nationwide Series championship after finishing second to Kyle Busch last year. His stated goal of winning both the Cup and Nationwide titles in the same season nearly came to fruition two years ago when Edwards finished second in both series.
“If a couple of things would have gone differently in 2008, we would have won both championships,” said Edwards, who won the Nationwide title in 2007. “I was close enough to know that it could be done, and that’s really kind of in the back of my mind as the ultimate goal to win both of them in one year.”
To accomplish that, Edwards and his Roush teammates will have to find a way to overcome Johnson and his dominant No. 48 bunch on the Cup side. If the on-again, off-again pattern holds true for Edwards, it should signal a return near the top of the point standings. Edwards has been through this before: He was third in points as a Cup rookie in 2005 then dipped to 12th in his sophomore season.
Asked whether it’s beneficial in any way to endure the adversity he did last year, Edwards said that’s just the nature of competing at NASCAR’s highest level – unless you’re Johnson.
“It’s reality. This sport is very, very tough,” Edwards said. “It’s reality for everybody but Jimmie. They’ve somehow been able to stay on top, but in 2005 we ran really well; 2006 was terrible; 2007 was OK; 2008 was great; and 2009, we made the Chase, which is a pretty big accomplishment.”
True, but Edwards and his Bob Osborne-led team will be looking for bigger and better things this year.
“We’ve just got to go do it; 2009 is over, it’s done. Now we’ve got to go be champions in 2010,” Edwards said.
THE EDWARDS FILE
• Career Cup wins: 16 (most recently at Homestead, 2008)
• Career Cup top-10s: 99
• Career starts: 193
• Laps led: 2,599
• Best track: Michigan (6.1 avg. fin.)
• Worst track: Talladega (23.5 avg. fin.)
• Did You Know: Edwards was a college student at the Univ. of Missouri and a part-time substitute teacher before joining Roush Fenway Racing.
• COMING WEDNESDAY: Jeff Gordon
