Carl Edwards carried his magic through the entire season, collecting four victories and finishing in the top 10 in points. Credit: Autostock

In Review: Carl Edwards

Young driver had a chance for the title in his first full season

In 2005, Carl Edwards was "magic," according to veteran Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin's assessment of the youthful Missouri native's blossoming on NASCAR's premier stage.

With no great expectations but infinite possibilities, Edwards delivered in degrees that almost no one could have imagined, backed by crew chief Bob Osborne and the No. 99 Office Depot/Scotts Ford team.

Edwards' signature victory flip. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Carl Edwards in 2005 Race Start Finish Daytona 500 27 12 Auto Club 500 19 5 UAW-DaimChrys 400 20 14 Golden Corral 500 4 1 Food City 500 42 26 Advance 500 36 38 Sam/RadSh 500 20 19 Subway Fresh 500 11 7 Aaron's 499 21 32 Dodge Charger 500 10 9 Chevy 400 11 21 Coca-Cola 600 12 3 RacePoints 400 8 16 Pocono 500 29 1 Batman 400 23 5 Dodge/S. Mart 350 23 38 Pepsi 400 34 33 USG 400 21 39 New England 300 20 12 Penn. 500 41 4 Allstate 400 38 12 Sirius at the Glen 10 19 GFS Marketplace 400 12 4 Sharpie 500 37 24 Sony HD 500 1 4 Chevy 400 18 21 Sylvania 300 24 19 MBNA 400 32 9 UAW-Ford 500 10 5 Banquet 400 5 3 UAW-GM 500 8 10 Subway 500 18 26 Bass MBNA 500 2 1 Dickies 500 30 1 Checker 500 3 6 Ford 400 1 4 Average 18.9 13.9 First of manyEdwards nips Jimmie Johnson for the victory at Atlanta Party timeEdwards celebrates his first career Cup victory Legend of the fallEdwards completes his Atlanta sweep in October Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE ALSO •   Year in Review Archive

In only the fourth weekend of a season in which he planned to run full programs in both Nextel Cup and the Busch Series, Edwards swept both events at Atlanta Motor Speedway to score his first-career triumphs in both.

The march by Edwards, 26, ended with him grabbing third in the Busch Series championship standings, despite missing one event when rainy weather interrupted an intricate travel itinerary.

But even more spectacularly, he came into the Cup season finale Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a legitimate shot at winning the Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was a remarkable finish for a team that began 2005 without knowing if it had enough sponsorship to complete the season.

In fact, Edwards somewhat dominated the statistics in the 10-race Chase, logging the best average finish, 8.4 per race, on the strength of a league-leading eight top-10 finishes -- including a pair of victories.

When the final tally was in place, Edwards was tied with another Roush mate, Greg Biffle, only 35 points behind two-time champ Tony Stewart. Biffle's two-race edge in the victory column gave him posession of the runner-up spot.

Edwards' youthful vigor and enthusiasm carried through the end of the season.

"There's only one way to approach this kind of competition, I think, and that is to just go into it 100 percent and give everything you can and see what comes up," Edwards said. "We've had a blast."

Edwards, who sacrificed his Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year eligibility by running 13 races at the end of 2004, harvested exactly what team owner Jack Roush had hoped for by totaling four wins, two Bud Poles, 13 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes against only one DNF.

As Martin said, "magic" needed no more of an explanation than those numbers provided.

"They asked me after the race about him, and I said, 'He's magic,'" Martin said at Homestead. "And they said, 'How do you mean?' And I said, 'Well, you see him. He's magic.' The guy is pretty incredible. That's all I can say."

Edwards began the season in his lowest position in the points, 13th. He was so steady in the first half that a mid-season stretch of three races in which he finished 38th, 33rd and 39th at Sonoma, Daytona and Chicago, respectively, only knocked him back to 12th.

From there, the charge was on, and in the last 18 races of the season, Edwards stormed to eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes and led the most laps for the first time in his career at Homestead.

Throughout the season, Edwards' teammates, all of whom have won championships in the highest levels of the sport, praised him deeply.

"Carl is just massively talented," 2003 Cup champion Matt Kenseth said. "Some people are really gifted and naturals at it, and then there are other people probably like me that have to work really hard at it.

"You see him walk down pit road. He's the only driver I've ever seen in my life walk down pit road during qualifying with a headset on listening to the scanner to see what everybody is saying about the racetrack.

"I mean, he's really involved in it, but he's just so naturally talented. I think he probably surprised us all with how good he did, but he's definitely one of those gifted people."

In what amounted to his rookie season in Nextel Cup, Edwards' average finish was 13.97, and his average start was 18.91 -- a pair of numbers a lot of veterans would crave.

"We just have an unbelievable team," Edwards summed up after his year was through. "My guys are unbelievable. I'm having a good time and that's what it's all about, and we'll be back next year."

For Edwards to finish the season with the same amount of exuberance that he started with, after running 70 races in two intense championship battles, doesn't necessarily bode well for the competition.

"If we can maintain the same amount of luck, we'll be all right," Edwards said. "We're gonna have a good time next year. I can't wait."