Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards: Drivers need to be more accessible to fans
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Carl Edwards doesn’t mind signing autographs and doing his part to accommodate NASCAR fans, but the Roush Fenway Racing driver sure wishes the sanctioning body would find better ways to make drivers more accessible to fans.
While participating in NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder FanFest at Daytona International Speedway in January, Edwards said it occurred to him that there should have been a better way to reach out to fans of the sport.
“Here we are with all the drivers at Daytona …, but I thought it sure would be better use of all our time and maybe more beneficial for the fans if each driver went to their respective markets, maybe where they are from or near their home tracks or something and spent the same amount of time,” Edwards said. “Maybe we could touch more fans and give them something more.”
Edwards, tabbed by many as a favorite to win this year’s championship, is also an advocate of doing away with NASCAR’s annual awards ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City at the end of each season.
“Instead of going to New York and putting ourselves in tuxedos and eating $100-a-plate food and all that stuff, why don’t we just go somewhere in North Carolina, like up there to Victory Junction Gang Camp, and clear a big field and have our awards banquet out on the back of a trailer with the bands and invite the fans to camp out and maybe include them a little bit more,” he said. “I think we could probably do some things like that to where these fans feel like [we are who] we should be and maybe give them something instead of separating ourselves.
“I don’t mind them asking for my time …, but maybe there is a way to say, ‘Hey, look, we don’t have to be up here. We can come hang out and have a good time and sit whoever is champion on a dunk-tank seat for two hours.’”
Edwards said he would gladly give up the glitz and glamour of New York City if he wins his first Cup championship this year.
“I think people would enjoy it,” he said. “I think if you just said, ‘We’ve got room for 5,000 or 10,000 people, bring your tent and we’re going to have our awards ceremony on stage and afterward there will be a band,’ and that’s how we do it.”
Edwards, who recently bought a 425-acre farm in Missouri, says he would even volunteer to host the event.
“I do have a place in Missouri we can use,” he said.
