CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Minions Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you looking forward to racing with the Minions this weekend?
“We have the Minions Camry and this is pretty cool. We’re going to have a little bit of fun with it. For me, this weekend is special. This is the site of my first win in NASCAR – the Truck Series and it was huge. Then my win in 2005 in the Xfinity Series and now NASCAR is going the direction I’ve been wanting to go for a while with a less downforce package and I’m excited to see how it runs. Hopefully it will be a good weekend.”
What is it specifically you like about Kentucky?
“The cool part about Kentucky is it has character – it’s got bumps, it’s got grooves and the banking changes. Now I really think with the smaller spoilers and less aero dependency this is going to be a really tough race. You’ll see guys really struggling and hopefully we struggle less than most of them. I think it’s going to be a tough race and that’s why I like Kentucky.”
What do you enjoy about the challenge of Kentucky?
“To me, the part about this sport that I love is that you can work hard, you can prepare for the race, you can work with your crew and you can drive your car the right way and have good strategy and win the race based on your own merit. The tougher a track is, the more of that you see. That’s what I like and Kentucky in the world of mile-and-a-halves, it’s one of the toughest.”
What do you expect to see from the new package?
“I think it’s important to keep in mind that we’re really just stepping back a few years with the aerodynamics, but it’s still the right direction. I grew up being a stock car fan because stock car races are races where the guys are out there driving the cars sideways and they’re using every bit of the tire and they’re able to race close to one another. That’s where the heart and soul of NASCAR is about to me. For me, the less dependency on aerodynamics and having nobody in front of you that we have, the better off we are.”
How important is tonight’s three hours of practice?
“The importance of tonight’s three hours cannot be over-stated. The way that we race here and the way that we race at Darlington is going to give us all a good data point going forward. NASCAR, all of us – we want closer racing and we want better racing, we want it to be more exciting, more fun and NASCAR has a lot of things on the table. This low downforce package here and Darlington, we’re going to do a high downforce package at Indy and Michigan. I know they’re not going to come ask me about either of them because they know what I’m going to say, but it’s a good data point and so this test, this race, Darlington – they’re going to be important going forward.”
Did you want to see this change midway through the season?
“NASCAR half listened to us. We all said we want the low downforce package and they gave us that, but they gave us the high downforce package too. Really, it’s the right way to do it I guess to try everything. I just really, really hope we continue to go down the path of what the sport was built on and that’s not aerodynamics and that’s my opinion. I do believe that the closer we get to restrictor plate racing, the racing will look different and it will look more like what we see at Daytona, but really for me personally that’s not the most fun type of racing. It might look interesting, but you really can’t separate yourself from the field and that’s what I like. Everybody has their different opinions.”
Could we see these package changes in the Chase?
“I don’t believe that we’ll be able to use this test for the Chase. If I’m not mistaken, NASCAR’s position is to not implement any new stuff for the Chase and that’s probably the most fair thing to do. Like we said, it could be the way we run in the future. We could have this style of package a lot in the future, we might not, but either way we just want to run well here at Kentucky and be prepared for anything.”
What can the fans expect to see from this new package at Kentucky?
“I really believe in this sport there are two types of fans, there are the fans that really like the race and they like to see the guys get the cars balanced and man-handle the race cars and do all that and they understand it and I think there are the fans that believe that just because cars are closer than that means it’s a better race. I don’t know about the way this will look, but it puts it more in the driver’s hands and to me that’s a neat style of racing.”
Has the racing at Kentucky ever frustrated you?
“I’ll say this, Kentucky has been one that has never really been as aero-dependent as the other tracks because it’s so bumpy. You’ve got the make the suspension work. Really Kentucky to me is one of the better race tracks and more fun race tracks that we go to just because it’s tougher and it’s not so sanitary and it’s not perfect. You can’t get the car engineered perfect at Kentucky, you’ve got to be able to deal with all the bumps.”
How much will you lean on your teammates at Kentucky?
“Kyle (Busch) was really good last year and I’ve already looked at a little bit of his stuff and I’ll lean on him heavily. That’s one of the cool things about being a JGR driver is that these guys just push me and push me every week – figuratively. Literally, we haven’t been pushing each other yet. The guys are just awesome to lean on so I’ll do that.”
What was your reaction to Austin Dillon’s crash at Daytona?
“I was really horrified. I was so grateful to see Austin (Dillon) get out of that car. Like I said before, the style of racing that I enjoy is the type of racing where you can really drive the car and separate yourself from the field. I’m just glad that didn’t go real bad. I hope that we do something to make it safer for everybody moving forward and at Talladega.”
