Carl Edwards is 11th in the Nextel Cup Series standings. Credit: Autostock

Q&A: C. Edwards

NASCAR's newest star on his success and his struggles

Carl Edwards is currently in 11th place in the Nextel Cup Series driver standings. Although Edwards is making his debut in Texas in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series this coming weekend, he has had success there in the Craftsman Truck Series with two top-five and four top-10 finishes.

	Inside the Numbers Carl Edwards' NCTS record at Texas Motor Speedway Date Start Finish Sept. 13, 2002 9 24 June 6, 2003 16 2 Oct. 11, 2003 3 4 June 11, 2004 5 6 Oct. 16, 2004 17 9 Average 10 9 NOTE: This weekend will mark Edwards' debut in the Busch and Nextel Cup Series

To assist him in a bid for the win at this weekend's race, Carl will be driving car RK-270, the same car Edwards drove to his first Nextel Cup victory at Atlanta.

Edwards spoke with several members of the media Tuesday.

Q: Carl, you've had a tough couple of weeks at the short tracks. How do you feel now that competition is returning to some of the larger tracks like Texas?

Edwards: Well, to be honest with you, I'm just excited to go anywhere after the last two weeks we've had. You know, our Office Depot car, we got off to a terrible start at Bristol. I spun out in qualifying, and it just went downhill from there. We were ready to go to Martinsville and give Scotts another really good run, and we didn't just have a good day.

I really love short-track racing, but I think it was just bad luck. We're pretty pumped about going to Texas. I love racing there. We feel like every race is an opportunity to show how good our team is, so we're ready to go.

Q. So early in your Cup career, and even in your Busch career, does a track like Texas, as opposed to the short tracks, does that play favorably in your hands as you try to learn the ropes of Cup and Busch?

Edwards: Yeah, I feel like as a driver, any time I have more space to work in, a bigger racetrack, everything's not so close, you have an opportunity, you know, to relax just a little bit more and kind of feel your way through a race.

At places like Martinsville and Bristol, racing against the Cup Series guys is so tough, there's just no room for error. Our incident there on Sunday was just a series of small mistakes we made that led to having a terrible day. At a place like Texas, there's a little more cushion there. It's a little more forgiving.

Q. With so much success early, in some respects, the two short tracks, Bristol and Martinsville, a bit humbling?

Edwards: Oh, yes, extremely humbling. But that's how racing is, and I don't think -- you know, we looked at it from a little bit different perspective after we got home. We said, hey, if we would have sat down at the beginning of the season and said six races in, we'd be 11th in Cup Series points, leading the Busch Series in points, and having a win in both series, that would have been perfect.

We know how good our team is and I feel like the things that happened at Bristol, you know, were mostly my fault, and it was small mistakes that led to a terrible outcome. Martinsville was really just a fluke deal. You're going to have that kind of luck in racing.

Q. Do you feel like maybe the rest of the series has caught up at all to the supposed Hendrick-Roush domination?

Edwards: Well, I don't think there was any -- I think the term "domination," I think it was a little bit premature in the season. A lot of people were talking about that. I mean, we had some great runs, Hendrick had some great runs, but we are literally at the seventh race of the season coming up. That's just not enough races to get a full feel for how the season is going to do.

I think that's what you saw at these short tracks. You see Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Childress and Gibbs, these guys, running great. That's because they're great teams. They just weren't having the great days we were the first few races. I think it will all even out.

So in a way, yes, the other teams are starting to have the success, but I feel like as we run more races, it's a pretty level playing field.

Q. If you do have an edge, where do you think it would be?

Edwards: Boy, from my perspective, the edge that Roush Racing, if there is one, the edge that we have is just the way our teams work together, you know, without egos getting in the way. It's truly a team effort all the way up until the last 25 laps of the race. That's just an awesome feeling, to know that I can lean on my teammates for advice, for setups, for any type of help that we need. I think that's a big advantage.

Q. Curious what your take is on the Lucky Dog?

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Edwards: You know what, boy, the way our last two short-track races have gone, I think it's a great rule. I mean, I guess -- Jeff Gordon, he got the Lucky Dog one time or two times on Sunday?

Q. I believe just once.

Edwards: OK. I think it's kind of a neat thing. It keeps a lot more cars in the hunt. If we good back to Bristol and have the same type of qualifying effort or bad luck in qualifying, it still allows you to go into the race and know that, hey, you know, it's OK. If we go down a lap early in the race, as long as we have a good car and we deserve to be up front, you can get back on the lead lap. In that respect I think it's a good thing. If you're a dominating car, it's a little bit frustrating to watch other guys get laps back.

I think it adds something. I think it's kind of fun.

Q. The early success, is it more of a load off your mind or on your mind? You got that first win, but it's got to affect you mentally knowing you have the pressure to follow up with some more success. Which is it?

Edwards: It's definitely a feeling of accomplishment. There's no more pressure. Anybody that knows me will tell you, man, I'm the hardest person in the world on myself. There can't be any more pressure on me. I don't really feel things from the outside as far as pressure is concerned. I have just this internal desire to win every time I go do anything. It wears me out sometimes.

But I'll tell you what, having that win at Atlanta, I think it took a lot of pressure off because the big picture is we got a win for Scotts and for Ford and for the 99 team. That helps us to kind of, you know -- it helps us with marketing, helps us to secure partners for the next two or three years and allows us to build a team that can go out and win championships.

That's the thing that I've been really deep down thinking about is, "Hey, we need some continuity. We need a good, solid team for the next few years to win these championships."

Q. Doing the double duty this year, how much has that helped you in the Cup races so far this year? Do you think you'd be having the same kind of success on Sunday if you were just doing Cup?

Edwards: No. I'm really grateful to Jack Roush for giving me the opportunity. To drive the Charter car with Brad Parrott chew chiefing it is awesome. I've learned so much. I mean, Brad's experience level, he's probably as experienced as anyone in the Nextel Cup Series garage and I've got him as a Busch Series crew chief.

It helps me with a bunch of things, you know, namely learning the tracks, learning to drive against the other drivers, and especially with the number of Nextel Cup Series drivers that come down and run in the Busch Series, that just helps me a lot to have extra laps against them.

It also helps me to understand pit strategy, you know, the little things that can hurt you, like not pitting when you've got flat left side tires, grinding the sway bar through like we did at Martinsville. It helps me to learn all those things without having to learn them all in the NEXTEL Cup Series.

Q. You were supposed to be the heir apparent in the 6 car. Is your name in stone on the 99 car? What's going to happen when Mark leaves?

Edwards: I'm the driver of the 99 car right now. That's what we're focusing on. I mean, I'm just as curious as the rest of you guys. I kind of want to know who is going to drive that 6 car. It's a big deal.

I really don't know. I asked somebody the other day, "Hey, what's going on? Am I still going to drive this thing? What are we doing?" They said, "No, man, we've got partners that want to do this 99 deal. Got a great deal. We're just going to go along and we'll stick somebody else in it." So I don't know how it's going to work out.

Q. Do you have any plans to go back to doing any open-wheel?

Edwards: Yeah, we're going to run the USAC Silver Crown race at IRP. We're working on it right now. There's a little bit of a scheduling conflict. Ford Motor Company has Ford Fan Day the same day as the race. If I can get USAC and Ford and everyone to help me out a little bit, I plan on driving the RE Technologies car there at IRP on Thursday night I believe it is before the Indy races.

Q. Any thoughts of someday trying the Indy 500?

Edwards: Boy, that would be amazing. I'd have to do some serious testing in some open-wheel cars before I ever tried something like that. I mean, I love racing in any respect. I'd like to go do a lot of things. I'd still like to drive a midget at the Chili Bowl. That's one of my dreams. I'd like to run something at El Dora. And, yes, I'd definitely like to run IndyCars sometime. But, man, I'd want to really go wholeheartedly towards that. I couldn't just do that as a one-off race.