Toyota NSCS Charlotte All-Star Carl Edwards Notes & Quotes

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards was made available to the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway:

CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 ARRIS Surfboard Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you think of the possibility of being on the cover of the ‘NASCAR Heat Evolution’ video game?
“I’m sitting here thinking of how strange this is for all of these things to converge. As a race car driver right now at this point in my life and my career I’m out here in the All-Star event racing for a million dollars that Sprint put up and all of the stuff that goes along with it but growing up my only opportunity to drive a stock car like the one I drive now in reality was through video games. So, I played a ton of video games and I really loved driving games so it’s almost surreal to have the opportunity in my real capacity as a race car driver now to be driving for the opportunity to be on the cover of a video game that if a couple things hadn’t worked out that would be the closest I’d ever got to NASCAR. So, it’s really neat, it’s an honor and I don’t think anyone has every partnered in the way Toyota has with a video game licensee and manufacturer the way they have. It’s just a cool opportunity and the game sounds really neat so I look forward to the opportunity to play it. It would be crazy to be on the cover. I hope I’m on it. It’s neat for you guys to have me be a part of this because truly I had so much fun growing up, and I still do, with the video game stuff. It’s such a neat way for the fans to experience our sport. We have a very rare sport or opportunity that’s rare in the sport because the drivers, the participants, all we do is we push the throttle pedals and we turn the steering wheel and people through video game technology experience that as close as any fans can experience any sport because of the simulation properties that you guys are so good at. It’s cool, it’s fun.”

What is your outlook for this weekend?
“It’s cool for ARRIS to market their surfboard on our car. ARRIS makes the fastest modems in the world and it’s neat to have that on the car. This is All-Star weekend. This is like Dave Rogers (crew chief) said, he said, ‘There are no participation prizes.’ It’s either all or nothing. It’s a really fun race to run so hopefully we can get to victory lane. I think with the new format no one knows nobody has any way to predict how this is going to go. I think it’s going to be a really crazy event but I’m looking forward to the opportunity to win the million bucks and to be on the cover of the video game. That would be really neat.”

Have you looked much at what the strategy will be like for the race or will it depend on how the tires wear?
“We have to see how the tires wear. That’s really going to be the key. And then man, it’s just I was going through it this morning, if you are running sixth or seventh before the final stop I don’t know, then it becomes maybe a race for 12th or something. I just don’t know how this thing is going to play out. The advantage that I have is we have a really fast pit crew so I feel like even if we’re not leading and we feel like the tires are the deal and we’re running fifth or something we could still come off of pit road first. I think for us and for my team fortunately because of my pit crew I have more options I believe. But then somebody brought up the fact that the complete chaos that’s going to ensue when they drop the green flag, you might be better off being in the back with fresher tires because I believe some people are going to be wrecking. I think the factor that’s going to determine what you do is how much the tires fall off how much advantage do you have. I don’t know, it’s going to be – before that caution comes out there’s going to be a lot of people trying a lot of different things.”

Is there any friendly wagering between you and the other Toyota drivers to get on the cover of video game?
“Yeah, this is one of those things that doesn’t pay anything but it’s really cool. You want to do it. It will be really neat no matter what happens tomorrow night this will be something that we discuss I’m sure afterwards. I don’t know. Whoever gets it and however they get it maybe they will send the other guys some games or something. This is kind of one of those neat things that we get to do. It means more than it probably appears to do something like that – to be on the cover.”

How much more important has your pit crew become over the years?
“They’ve become really important. I was actually describing to a friend of mine, he’s a drag racer, and we were talking about how tough this sport is and how hard everybody runs and my first entrance into the Sprint Cup Series was at Michigan 10 or 12 years ago and I couldn’t believe how hard everybody pushed and how competitive it was. It’s in the last decade has become exponentially harder so with that everyone is more competitive, everything’s closer, everybody is so good at restarts that the pit crew is just another one of those pieces. Chocolate Myers and I talked about it this week on the radio – it takes every single piece and I think that’s what makes Joe Gibbs Racing look so good right now is that we’ve got the good engines from TRD (Toyota Racing Development), we’ve got the good cars, we’ve got good pit crews in place and if you have one of those things missing it’s awful. Last week at Dover we saw it every time we came on pit road we gained positions and it’s a lot easier than gaining them on the race track.”

What do you expect the toughest part of the All-Star Race to be?
“I think the last restarts are going to be the toughest part. I think you have to make decisions – you’re going to have to decide do I want to stick the car in there or do I want to go up there and fill that hole? It’s going to be tough. I think avoiding the chaos or the wrecks that happen, that’s going to be tough.”

Would you like NASCAR to settle on one format or do you like the changes?
“I think it’s more the latter. I first heard about all of these changes and I thought, ‘Man, this is just going to be tough and I don’t understand this.’ And, then the more I think about it it’s like, ‘Man, this is going to be pretty neat.’ If I were a fan I would want to see something like this that’s got the garage kind of frustrated and confused. I can sit here and say that now with a smile but be real frustrated after the race. I think it’s okay. I think Marcus (Smith) and Bruton (Smith) and everybody at Sprint they want this race to be really exciting. They want us to give everything we’ve got to go and win it and they’ve created a format where you’re going to have to do that. Something is going to happen in those last 13 laps.”

What kind of endurance and stamina do you need to drive 600 miles next weekend?
“So, the 600 is really a tough race and it’s tough on the cars, the pit crews. It’s always been that way. Another 100 miles, it means something. And, the other thing that makes that race tough is throughout that race the track changes a lot as we go into the night and you have to stay on top of it and regardless of how long it is a lot of it is you have to be on your game at the end and those have been some long nights and I think that at the end of the day that does wear on you and you have to be prepared for it.”

What changes would you like to see to the rules going forward for the rest of the year?
“I think the racing has been really good. I was walking out of Dover early last week and I got to see from that crossover bridge I got to watch Kyle (Larson) and Matt (Kenseth) go at it and that was some really good racing. That was extremely entertaining. And, I feel like we’ve had some really close finishes and good racing and it’s because NASCAR is working to make it better. If I’m not mistaken there might be some things on the horizon that are really exciting especially to me and they’ve been working that same direction. I feel like they’ve got their hands wrapped around it, they know what they’re working with and they’re just going to keep making it better. You guys all know how I feel about the downforce stuff. We’re going in the right direction and it’s only going to get better.”

How comfortable are you with how NASCAR is calling restarts?
“So, what I gather from watching the way they’re policing the restarts is I better not try anything on the restarts because they are on it. They do not want to see any messing around so I believe they’ve laid down the law. Everybody knows that they’re serious about it. I got warned at Bristol and it was surprising to me how strict they are being. Somebody put it best – I can’t remember which driver said it – but that’s what you want. You want them to enforce the rules. We have good rules and I applaud NASCAR for enforcing them.

Have you talked with Kyle Larson after the wreck last week?
“As far as my wreck last week, when it happened I was very frustrated because I thought Kyle (Larson) had basically run me over from behind while I was trying to avoid Kurt (Busch). The first time I went back and looked at the replay I went on YouTube and went on and looked at the broadcast at multiple angles and all of that and I thought, ‘Man, Kyle was really doing a good job there.’ He just got a great run underneath me at the same time I was trying to avoid what possibly was going on with the 41 (Kurt Busch). Looking back on it, it was really frustrating for me to wreck but man, Kyle was just doing a really good job racing hard. He had no reason to call me. If anything I thought about calling him just to apologize for calling him an idiot and getting that on TV because he definitely was doing a good job. Just hard racing and once again thanks to NASCAR for all of the safety stuff. That was a pretty good hit and it really didn’t hurt that bad so I appreciate that. No, he didn’t call me. He didn’t have to at all. That was racing. I was frustrated but like I said when I look back if I put myself in his position I’d say that’s just racing.”

Are you concerned about a video game cover jinx?
“No, I’m not concerned about that at all. No. Don’t even bring that up.”

Will you pay any more attention to the Indianapolis 500 with it being the 100th anniversary?
“I think anybody who has any interest in auto racing watches the Indy 500. I assume that because I always did and all the people around me we watched the Indy 500. I try to watch as much of it as I can every year from the motorhome before we go out and get in the car and it’s just a really special place. That race is very similar to the Daytona 500, it’s a historic event and whatever happens is important there. It’s neat to watch for me as a driver it’s neat to watch because all of the pressure is so much that rides on that race it’s neat to watch how everyone responds to it and how they compete. With Kurt (Busch) being in it that was cool to watch. That was neat and that was probably the most fun I’ve had watching it in a while. So, yeah, I’ll be watching.”

Would changing the rules package in a points race give for a better test result?
“I’m not NASCAR first of all so I don’t make these decisions but I can imagine that it’s tough to make them because they’re constantly looking for ways to make this sport look better for the fans. They want to make it better period. What’s been neat over the last couple of years is I’ve come to understand exactly how much NASCAR cares. When they do make a change or find something that they think is better then it’s when do they implement it? And, really, an event like this why not? Really, at an All-Star event with no points on the line make it hard, make it different. Push the teams to make us try something and I think now is as good of a time as any.”