Conversation: C. Edwards

Since the 2008 season ended Carl Edwards has been keeping fairly low-key, even while participating in a couple pretty high-profile events, like the season-capping Sprint Cup awards banquet in New York and the annual international Race of Champions in London.

Edwards did slip in a final test session of the '08 season, but most of his time was spent on personal things, like a long-anticipated trip to Thailand, a quiet holiday season and then, right after the New Year, his wedding to Kate Downey.

On New Year's Eve, Edwards sat down to talk about all that's been going on in his life, from racing to personal.

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Q: How was the 2008 holiday season for you?

Carl Edwards: The holiday season was adventurous -- a lot of fun. It was really busy leading up to Christmas. We went testing [the Sprint Cup car] in [Las] Vegas, which went really well. And that was a lot of fun because my dad and I went out there and it was really cool just to see all my guys at the track.

I hadn't driven a car for a little while so it was just fun to be able to drive something. I noticed how long it had been because my neck hurt! The second day I woke up and thought, 'man, I must have slept on my neck funny.' And then I realized it was just from holding my head up in the car, and I hadn't done that for a while. So it was cool to be back in a car.

But it was pretty wild after that. I flew back from Vegas on Thursday afternoon and got up Friday morning in Columbia [Mo.], and took my fiancée and her friend and two of my buddies -- we all flew to Atlanta and I got to speak to about 2,000 people for Aflac.

That was nerve-wracking, because I had to give a 30- to 45-minute motivational speech. And I did zero preparation. It ended up going really well, but I was nervous about that. We got that done and jumped on an airliner to go to London for the Race of Champions, did that and got on another plane and went to Thailand, spent a week there and then came home.

So it was, like, this huge whirlwind trip that actually went all the way around the world, so it was pretty cool.

Q: Did you ever stop to think about the fact that you were going all the way around the world or did you just do it?

Edwards: We kept going east the whole time, [from London] over Eastern Europe, Russia and India to Bangkok. Actually, all I did was sit in the back [of the plane] and eat the food, but it was still pretty cool. I don't know [how significant it was]. It was pretty neat, but to be clear, we just got airline tickets and went from place to place -- I mean, I wasn't flying the airplane or anything. Maybe someday [I will].

It was cool, but to me the neatest thing was to be somewhere [devoid of motorsports]. I did not see one picture of a stock car, not one racing thing. I mean, it's a totally different culture, and I only bring up the racing because it's something that we see all the time.

But there were so many things that were different about the culture. The people were really nice and it was neat. On the way back, we flew over Alaska because the shortest route was to go over the top of the earth, kind of. And it was cool to look out the window in the dark and see just a couple lights here and there over Alaska and Canada. I'd never been near that area of the planet. (Continued)