TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Carl Edwards – Notes & Quotes
Dover International Speedway – May 29, 2015
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How was your car in practice?
“Our Stanley Toyota was really fast in practice and it’s just such a fast race track. You really get a sensation of speed here. My first run I wasn’t very fast and I went back and looked and I just wasn’t driving the corner fast enough. You can just – the corner will take so much aggressiveness here. It’s got so much grip that it’s just a really fast place. So, I think we should be pretty good. We were all fast – all of our JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars in qualifying trim and it should be a good qualifying session for us.”
How do you handle long and grueling races like Dover or last week in Charlotte with the 600 miles?
“Last week was a really long event and it feels like we just haven’t had very many hot races in a while, but yeah if you get a couple 90 to 93 degree days in some of these tougher events like this weekend it can be really grueling and really tough so it is important to be hydrated and to be in shape and to eat right. It can be really demanding and some days if you just don’t feel well and you add that heat – it’s really oppressive. I’m used to it now, I’ve been doing this for so long, but for my first couple of times in these stock cars it amazed me that it was that hot and everybody could stand it.”
How much does your Charlotte win mean to your first season with JGR?
“We’ve had quite a bit of speed, but we haven’t had results and there’s definitely a difference. We ran pretty well at Atlanta and Vegas and Bristol, Martinsville, Talladega we probably would have had a top-five there – but you’re right, the proof is in the results and now that we have a win, the pressure is off. We can just go have some fun. All the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars have been fast for the last couple of weeks, particularly at Charlotte. Now we go here (Dover), a place that I love and our cars were fast in practice, so hopefully we can keep building on it. For us, the win was just a huge gift. It’s an opportunity and now we can relax and focus on getting better results.”
Did you feel a sense of relief after obtaining your first win with JGR?
“We were so entrenched – let me say this, we were far enough back in points and we had not been having good luck, we were going to be pretty content with ninth, 10th, somewhere in there in that race. The win was a shock, really. I don’t think it set in until – it took about 24 hours for me to really realize we can go to Dover and just hangout and have some fun. We don’t have to worry. We get to go to all these tracks that I really love like Sonoma and Watkins Glen, just work on stuff and have fun racing. It took me a little while to shift my mindset from digging in and getting points runs to, ‘Hey we’re in this thing.’ It’s pretty cool.”
Can you take chances now before the Chase starts?
“For sure we can take all the gambles we want, really. I guess theoretically we are not locked into the Chase, but we just don’t have to worry hardly at all. We can hang it out, be more aggressive on the restarts. We can set the car up looser. We saw Jimmie Johnson do it last week – when’s the last time you’ve seen him spin out twice at Charlotte? He’s the master there, and they were just trying different things and laying it all on the line. That’s fun to be able to race like that with really no consequences.”
