Driver Profile

As with so many race car drivers, the sports of racing has been a part of Carl Edwards' life for as long as he can remember.

His father, Carl "Mike" Edwards, has been racing modified stock cars and USAC midgets for four decades, accumulating over 200 feature wins at several Midwestern tracks.

The younger Edwards fired up his racing career at the age of 13 in 1993 by driving four-cylinder mini-sprints.

After a year of seasoning, Edwards won four feature races on tracks around Missouri and Illinois in the mini-sprint series. He gathered 14 more mini-sprint wins over the following two seasons.

In 1997, he switched to the dirt circuit and the IMCA modified division. He won rookie-of-the-year honors at Capital Speedway in Holt Summit, Mo. in 1998.

Edwards picked up the pace in 1999 as he competed in the Modified (two-barrel) division and the Dirt Late Model class at Capital Speedway. He celebrated 13 feature wins in the Modified division on his way to the NASCAR Track Championship.

He got his first taste of NASCAR in the Weekly Racing Series in 2000. In one season in the Pro-Modified division, Edwards won 13 feature races, was named Rookie of the Year, and claimed the Capital Speedway Track Championship.

Looking for additional challenges in 2000, he also competed in three Sportsman division races at California, Missouri, and Capital Speedway -- winning all three races.

In 2001, Edwards ran five of the seven USAC Silver Crown pavement series races. He competed at Richmond, Va., Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Irwindale, Calif. Continually gaining valuable experience, he achieved his best finish of 15th place at Richmond.

He continued to compete in the USAC series in 2002, making eight starts. He also ran seven Craftsman Truck races for MB Motorsports, where he earned a top-10 finish at Kansas.

In 2003, Edwards exploded on the national scene, snagging three Craftsman Truck Series wins for Roush Racing en route to an eighth-place finish in the series standings.