Carl Edwards Upbeat about Texas and Beyond

In a recent press conference, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards expressed a huge amount of enthusiasm as the Sprint Cup teams enter the final three races of the season.

The Roush-Fenway points leading driver said, “I don't think there's a specific strategy other than to go to Texas and try to build on the success we've had with our Aflac team.” He added, “We've run really well there. There could not be a better racetrack for us to be going to. I feel like we made it through the first seven races of the Chase better than we expected. Now we just go these last three races and go for broke.”

Edwards comes off a ninth place finish at the tough Martinsville track where he managed to score in the top 10 despite running towards the back of the pack for most of the day.

Race winner Tony Stewart wasted no time in smack talking Carl immediately after the race during victory lane interviews, stating things like, “Carl will not sleep very well over the next three weeks and Carl Edwards had better be real worried.”

Edwards cool and calm response was, “I'm fine with it 'cause I don't participate. My job is to go out here and do the best I can, win these championships. I just got done talking to Tony. We joked around about it a little bit.”

“It is kind of fun,” said the Ford Fusion driver. “It's fun to go back and forth, give each other a hard time. At the end of the day, I think Tony and myself would both be foolish if we thought all we had to worry about was one another. That would be great. That would be the best case.”

Edwards moves on to the next venue at Texas with a lot of confidence especially with three prior wins to his credit. Over the past four weeks, he and his team have been able to recover from what could have been devastating days with determination worthy of a NASCAR champion, but they can’t always rely on luck.

“I mean, we could get by on what we've been doing, “ he said. “That's not what we want to do. That's way too much stress. That's no fun. Fortunately this week we're going to Texas. Right or wrong, I am pumped to go to Texas. You never know how you're going to run, but I feel good going there. I love that place. I love everything about Texas, from Eddie Gossage, down to the fans, the way they make everything such a big event. Our performance there has been spectacular. Our hope is we go to these places and run really well. We plan on going to Texas, winning the pole, leading the most laps, winning the race.

I think in a way, a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders in that we made it through the toughest races for us, now we have these tracks that everyone on the team is excited to go to.”

With 23 top 10’s so far this season, Edwards has been a picture of consistency despite only scoring one win, something many people have been critical about.

Whatever it takes to follow the rules and come out on top and be the top dog at the big table in Las Vegas is all that matters to Edwards and his crew.

Edwards summed up his title shot by saying, “I guess at the end of the day the thing that's keeping me calm through this, keeping me focused, is realizing that, number one, anything can happen. Two, the only thing I can do is go do my very best, our team can do our very best. I have a great group of people around me not to get worked up, get ahead of myself, just go race this racecar.”