Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NSCS Hollywood Casino 400
Friday Oct. 3, 2014
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion, returns to his hometown track looking to secure his first win. Edwards is not shy about how important a win at Kansas Speedway would be and discussed the added importance to securing that win in the Contender Round of the Chase.
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – YOU HAVE THE BEST AVERAGE FINISH HERE OF ANY DRIVER WITH A 7.6, TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THAT AS WELL AS STARTING THE CONTENDER ROUND HERE AND WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT THESE RACES, KANSAS, CHARLOTTE AND TALLADEGA. “I didn’t know we had the best average finish. That is nice. I appreciate when you don’t point out when I have the worst one, it is nice that you just point out the good ones. We feel like this is a good race track for us. I obviously love this place. I see at least two people in the room whose cars I have driven or have helped me. This place is special. We feel like we have an opportunity to run well at this place. We don’t know exactly how we will run at Charlotte but we feel we can do very well at Talladega. This round is one we have looked forward to and I am glad we made it in. It would be great to kick it off with a win here.”
YOU MAY BE THE FIRST DRIVER I’VE HEARD THAT IS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT GOING TO TALLADEGA. WHAT GIVES YOU THAT ENTHUSIASM? “Well, this is the first time I have been enthusiastic about Talladega and that is because of the format combined with the opportunity it gives our team in particular. I think this format perfectly suits our situation in that we have not been the dominant car all year but right now we are tied with guys like Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon. We have an opportunity now to make something happen and if I were those guys I would be frustrated but right now we are going to take advantage of this. For Talladega in particular it gives us an opportunity to go out and regardless of our performance here at these two tracks we know we have a good superspeedway program and have nothing to lose and can go race for that win.”
YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT IT BEFORE BUT CAN YOU RESTATE THIS RACE TRACK, WHAT IT MEANT TO YOU GROWING UP AND ALSO THIS WHOLE AREA AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT AROUND THIS RACE TRACK. “I can tell you, Scott Trailer is sitting in here and Roger Mosier is sitting over there and these are guys that I raced with. They know what it is like to be a racer here in Missouri like I grew up being. To know that NASCAR was building this huge facility, ISC was building this beautiful race track over here, the perspective I had 10 or 15 years ago about this race track this was it. I would drive by on the interstate and just couldn’t believe there was a NASCAR track right here this close to home. To be driving here now and to be driving a Sprint Cup series car here is almost like a dream world. It is something I thought about every day and I just dreamed of. For me it is really important. A win here would be so special. Just to race here is neat as winning at some of the other tracks I’ve won at. I am not just saying that. It is really a special place.”
LOOKING TO NEXT YEAR WITH TESTING BEING OUTLAWED, WILL YOU TRY TO RUN SOME NATIONWIDE RACES TO GET ACCUSTOMED TO JOE GIBBS RACING? “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that too much. I am not trying to avoid your question but I have made the decision not to worry about next year. As much as the competitor in me wants to start planning for next year I think the right thing for me to do is focus on driving Jack’s 99 Ford and get the most I can out of that. I think as soon as I start thinking about anything else it could hurt us just a little bit and right now we can’t afford that.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED … I KNOW YOU ARE A MISSOURI GUY BUT ARE YOU A CHIEFS GUY OR ROYALS GUY? “Everybody is doing so well you can’t even keep up. I tell you what, I didn’t know a lot about the Royals organization until earlier this year when the Speedway sent me over there and they were nice enough to welcome me and let me throw out the first pitch and I spent a bunch of time with Ned Yost and I became a fan. It is really cool to see what the Royals have been able to do and MU had a big win the other day and that was cool to watch for Gary Pinkel. I haven’t kept up with the Chiefs. We actually had an invite to Ned Yost to come out here to the race track but we are glad he can’t because of all their success. It is fun to be a Missouri fan right now.”
WHEN CLINT WAS IN HERE EARLIER HE HAD THE SAME ENTHUSIASM ABOUT THIS PLACE AS YOU DO. THERE ARE OTHER DRIVERS WHERE THIS PLACE HAS BEEN A HOUSE OF HORRORS. CAN THAT IMPACT PERFORMANCE? COMING HERE WITH A GOOD ATTITUDE? “I don’t know. I think it really probably doesn’t. All of us are professional enough and focused enough that it really doesn’t matter what happens around the race or in your personal life. Once you get in the car you go as fast as the car can go. For me it is just neat. The whole weekend is fun. Being here today and talking to people I haven’t talked to for a long time. I get to hang with Roger after this and we will talk about what he has been up to. I don’t know. I guess the simple way to put it is that I never thought I would be racing here so I feel like – I don’t know how to explain it I guess. It is a neat place. I am sorry some people don’t like it but it wouldn’t matter how I ran here, I still enjoy coming. It is fun.”
MAYBE ONE OF THE TOP-10 MOST FAMOUS SECOND PLACE FINISHES OF ALL TIME WAS YOU HERE. DO YOU GET ASKED ABOUT THAT STILL? “Yeah, that was fun. I was really upset we didn’t win. That is how bad I want to win here. Looking back that was probably a stupid move. We were racing for a championship and I intentionally ran the thing into the wall. I just want to win here. If I can see the lead and there is a chance to get the win here we are going to go get it. I guarantee you the last run if we have a shot to win I won’t be thinking about points or anything like that – which I probably should be – but this place is just special.”
ANY BUILDING BLOCKS FROM CHICAGO, NEW HAMPSHIRE OR DOVER? “That is a good question. We struggled at Chicago and struggled at Loudon and then ran pretty well at Dover. At the end of the race we had a solid top-10 car. I don’t know if you guys can follow me on this here but the way we see this is if we can stay in the Chase, okay, that is obvious that you have to do that to compete for the championship. At the same time if we can gain a little speed and all of that, if it works out, we can make it to Homestead and find a couple things and we feel like we have a shot. We’ve don’t the first spot. We made it past the first round. That little glimpse of speed at Dover was kind of like, ‘Hey, maybe we can do this.’ That was the biggest building block. If you look at the Roush Fenway Fords in practice we struggled with some things but we were faster than we have been. If we stumble on some things and make it to the next round we feel pretty good.”
CLINT BOWYER BECAUSE A NEW FATHER THIS WEEK. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT WHEN YOU HAD YOUR KIDS AND IF IT CHANGED YOU AT ALL AS A RACE CAR DRIVER. “I don’t think so. I think as racers I have always tried to separate everything away from the race track and at the track. At the end of the day when you get in a race car it doesn’t matter – PR, marketing, personal stuff, next year, the previous year, none of it really matters. I feel like at the end of the day we have to focus on being good in that race car. I can’t ever find a pattern. If you are struggling with something outside the race car it doesn’t mean you will struggle inside the race car and if things are good outside it doesn’t necessarily translate. I am happy for Clint and Laura. They are great people and I am glad everything went well and I think he will be a great dad.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED … DO YOU SPEND MORE TIME IN MISSOURI? DO YOU SPEND MORE TIME IN COLUMBIA THAN YOU DO NORTH CAROLINA? IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO BRING YOUR KIDS UP IN MISSOURI? “I don’t know who said it but someone said if you want to be the best at something find something you love and don’t do it too much. I try to apply that because I can – I ran seven years of Nationwide and Cup series full time all over the place. Randy and I looked at some old calendars the other day. The amount of time I’ve spent thinking about racing and working on racing is immense. For me it is important to get away for a day or two a week to not be completely immersed in the culture of racing all the time. That is just something I have noticed for me that works. I learned that early on. It was tough just to constantly be at the shop and constantly be around everything because sometimes you couldn’t get a good perspective on things. For me, being away from North Carolina a little bit helps. I still come to the race track and am ready to race. I love it just like when we were hanging out at I-70 Speedway. I want to get in the car and go. I feel I have a good balance and I don’t ever think I will be able to do it well as long as I am capable of it.”
DO YOU LIVE A NORMAL LIFE? CAN YOU WALK AROUND COLUMBIA WITHOUT PEOPLE BUGGING YOU? “People treat me differently which is weird but I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of neat people and I am super grateful to all of my fans. When I walk out of here there are people out there wearing my jackets and hats and that means a lot. The support means a ton. Not so much when things are going well but when it is going bad. I feel the people in Missouri and the people here are behind me 100-percent and that means the world. That is a really cool feeling.”
WHAT DID THE FIRST PRACTICE TELL YOU? “It told me that I think we have a pretty good shot at a good qualifying spot. Greg was extremely fast and that was good. He is doing some things a little differently than us. We will lean on him. We will have our meeting and figure out if we can go that direction but the thing is, the race is still an unknown. Track temps are cool and the rubber is off so tomorrow will tell us where we stack up for the race. This place can be really tough. Track position will be key and the speeds are so high. We are going through the corners extremely fast and I think if you don’t start up front, if you don’t have a really good spot you could be in trouble. I think there is potential for big wrecks here. The restarts are crazy and it is so knife edge. If somebody messes up they could take out three or four cars. I don’t know yet how we will be in the race.”
