 | | Carl Edwards: "Then this one guys was like, 'Is this really Carl Edwards?' And I was like, 'Yeah. What's up?'" Credit: Streeter Lecka, Getty Images |
By Marty Smith, NASCAR.COM
April 21, 2005
12:18 PM EDT (16:18 GMT)
Few stories encapsulate the instant fame and lifestyle change that coincide with career victory number one at NASCAR's highest level. This one does: Carl Edwards slides and slams and sprints his way past Jimmie Johnson to win the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and not surprisingly inherits a few thousand new buddies in the process. And some old ones, too. Suddenly, folks he hasn't spoken with since Junior Prom are blowing him up like Baghdad. His cell phone is going berserk. And since he's had the same cell number for a decade, everyone in the Show Me State is phoning to offer congratulations and rekindle old friendships. As most of you know, Edwards is inherently kind. Hence, he answers the calls. All of them. Even the numbers he doesn't recognize, which are becoming more and more frequent with each passing day. Many hang up in his ear. He assumes they've called the wrong number. During a quiet dinner outing with friends, the latest random number flashes up on Edwards' caller ID. Per usual, he takes the call. Moments later, he knows first-hand that you really can get anything you want on eBay. "All of a sudden I started getting calls from numbers I didn't recognize. Several of them," Edwards explained, laughing enthusiastically. "A couple people hung up. Then this one guys was like, 'Is this really Carl Edwards?' And I was like, 'Yeah. What's up?'" The ensuing 10-minute conversation goes something like this: Caller: "If this is Carl Edwards, I want you to know your phone number is on eBay. Somebody put it on eBay." Edwards: "Oh, that's great. Juuuuust great." Caller: "If this is really Carl Edwards, how many points do you have in the Busch Series right now?" Edwards: "Come on, man! Are you really asking me all these trivia questions about myself? I got no clue how many points I have in the Busch Series!" Caller (yelling): "No way! This isn't Carl Edwards! If you were Carl Edwards, you'd know!" Finally, Edwards, laughing like a wild hyena by this point, surrenders and discontinues the debate. The caller is persistent. He offers Edwards a credit card number to purchase a handful of the now famous Carl Edwards "If you're looking for a driver, you're looking for me" business cards that are currently going for -- gulp -- $400 apiece on eBay. "I was like, 'Man, I don't want your money. This is Carl'," Edwards explained. "He ended up being pretty cool. He told me, 'Well, if this is Carl, I'm a big fan of yours, you're doing a good job.' And I was like, 'Thanks, man.' "So then he breaks back into 'This isn't Carl! No Way!' It was funny. I never did convince that guy it was really me." The next day, the caller -- hell-bent on getting confirmation that he really was speaking with Edwards -- phoned Roush Racing. When informed it was true, he was mortified and called his new buddy to offer an apology. "He left me a long voicemail message like, 'I'm so sorry, man, that was really rude. I apologize. I didn't mean to bother you.'" Edwards said. "He really thought it was a joke. He ended up being a pretty cool guy. And since then I've gotten some messages and calls and stuff, and it's cool." It wasn't initially so peachy. Edwards was petrified by the thought of his personal cell phone number being plastered on a virtual billboard that the entire world could access. "At first I thought it'd be the worst thing in the world. But it's kinda neat. Everybody's been pretty positive that's called," he said. "They've been like, 'Hey man, great job, good work.' It's kinda crazy. It's not that bad." But it is a little ironic. For years he'd been doling out business cards to any and all takers, and many who actually obliged were doing so out of courtesy. Now, he's a Nextel Cup winner and those same business cards are drawing four bills from memorabilia collectors. George and Weezy didn't move up this fast. "They didn't necessarily come back to haunt me, but I've definitely sat and thought of all the business cards I gave out," Edwards said. "Wow. It's a lot. It's awesome, though. I used to sit there and just want my cell phone to ring. Just once. Now it rings off the hook." The funniest message to date? "Some of the girls have been funny," he said. Propositions? "No propositions, just a lot of giggling and stuff." Edwards still isn't totally convinced the entire escapade wasn't a ploy by his publicist. The cell phone in question wasn't of the Nextel variety, after all. "That's a great point!" he said when I broached the conspiracy theory. "I thought it was Sheri (Hermann), because she's always on me to use my new Nextel phone. I love using it, it's just tough not having the numbers from my old phone. "The first thing I did when all this started was call her and say, 'Did you do this just to get me to use my Nextel phone?' She swears she didn't, but I'll always wonder." Rest assured, Edwards now has a new Nextel phone with a new number. He dreads inputting the roughly 450 numbers from the contact list in his old phone to that in his new one. And to think, it's all because of that little business card. Win one race, and suddenly a glorified piece of scrap paper is a lucrative item. Folks all over the Midwest must be digging through the trash. "I think they were $100 for every thousand business cards," Edwards said, chuckling. "And I still have a box of a couple hundred of them. Good thing I got a new phone, I guess." The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer. | 
