Carl Edwards celebrated a Busch Series victory four times in 2006. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Edwards: Favorite just having fun running NBS

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Carl Edwards knows that, after his meteoric 2005 debut season with Roush Racing in the Nextel Cup Series, he'll never sneak up on anyone in racing again.

But whatever you do, Edwards pointed out this week during the Busch Series' final session of Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway, don't call him a prohibitive favorite for the 2007 Busch Series title.

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"In racing, I've learned over time that there's nothing for sure," Edwards said, smiling and shaking head. "We've got a great team.

"We've got the same team we had last year, and yeah, if everything stayed the same, heck, you'd only have to run one season and then you'd know who is going to win for the rest of eternity."

Edwards wishes it were that simple. But you only have to look at his 2006 Cup debacle to know it's not the case. After winning four races and tying for second in the 2005 championship in his first full season, Edwards failed to win -- and even failed to make the championship playoffs -- a year later.

"The fact is there's anything that could happen," Edwards said of his 2007 Busch effort. "I think that the new guys coming in and some of the teams shaken up, you never know who could come out here and dominate and win 10 races.

"Hopefully it's us, but as far as a reason to watch [the Busch Series], it's awesome racing. It's really fun."

Edwards downplays his role as favorite despite the fact that he's one of only two drivers from the 2006 Busch Series' top 10 who'll return full-time this season, along with fifth-place J.J. Yeley.

Edwards finished second to record-setting Kevin Harvick in 2006, 824 points behind. His stats -- three Bud Poles, four wins, 15 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes -- speak volumes both about Harvick's 2006 dominance, but also Edwards' 2007 threat.

But again, don't tell him that.

"Honestly, it doesn't matter to me," Edwards said. "I've been under the radar most of my career, and then last year was different.

"I was looking at some of the magazines, the preview magazines, and a year ago a lot of them said we were going to win the Nextel Cup championship and all this stuff.

	Carl Edwards has won nine Busch races the past two years. Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
	Inside the Series 2006 Busch stats   Harvick Edwards Points 1 2 Wins 9 4 Top-5s 23 15 Top-10s 32 25 Poles 1 3 DNFs 0 3 Laps Led 1,197 662 Avg. Start 11.5 10.9 Avg. Finish 4.6 11.4

"It really doesn't matter what people say or think -- you have to go out and perform the job. Sometimes people forecast good and it doesn't go that well, and some people forecast that they aren't going to do any good and it goes real well.

"When the green flag drops, you have to do the same job no matter what anybody expects. I've learned, especially lately -- but I realized quite a while back that if you perform your best and ignore all the expectations from other people it usually works out like it's supposed to."

Harvick's 2006 season was something no one expected, but one thing Edwards said he discovered in getting battered by Harvick's Richard Childress Racing team last year was where his team could improve.

"Last year we got beat a lot by Kevin Harvick, and I noticed on the short tracks, toward the end of the year at Memphis we ran really well, but at Bristol and at Martinsville we were not in the same ballpark," Edwards said. "I feel like some of that is some engineering stuff that we can work better on.

"Other than [beating] Kevin and his guys, we didn't have to work much harder [because] we could pretty much keep up with everyone else.

"I could work a little bit on my driving by not making mistakes, and those engineering things -- we have addressed them and we're doing some things now that we didn't have the funding in place for last season [so] we should be faster."

And in the end, Edwards said that would help keep him grounded and, despite some nightmares with travel logistics, with six conflicting Busch and Nextel Cup dates this season, help his Cup program as well.

"I know that I have a lot of enthusiasm for racing, I really like to race and everybody knows that," Edwards said. "Last season, for instance, in the Cup Series, we had a year that wasn't terrible or anything -- but we didn't win a race and we didn't make the Chase.

"That was kind of a downer for me. It wasn't what we expected, and I'm so glad that I ran full time in the Busch Series because I got to win races [and] to finish second in points, that was a pretty good year.

"I feel like, logistically running the Busch Series is a little bit tougher because you have more things to do, but for my personal satisfaction and my enjoyment of my season, I like running the whole season so I've got another championship to chase.

"It's kind of like getting to race two seasons [so] it's really fun. I don't know how long I'll [race both full series], but right now I'm having fun [so] there's really no reason for me not to."