ARE YOU PLEASED WITH THE WAY THE FIRST TWO RACES HAVE GONE?
Carl Edwards: “We’ve really had Daytona and one race. Daytona, we were running really well. I felt like we were gonna be in the top four or five with the way our car kept going to the front, but we just got caught in that wreck, but that’s Daytona. I was proud that we finished 18th. I was really happy with getting back up there because when that all broke loose I thought, ‘Man, we’re gonna be about 40th.’ And then last week with the way practice went it was terrible and for us to finish seventh I thought we did a good job. Finishing in front of Jimmie, that made me feel a little better about it, that he could have the same trouble considering how well he ran there the last race. So really I feel not happy with our performance at California. I’m really not happy with it, but the fact that Greg was probably the fastest car and Matt was the second-fastest, I know that our whole team is gonna be fine. It’s still so early, but, yeah, it feels like two races and we haven’t won one – with the way we were going at the end of the season that feels like an eternity, but I think we’re gonna be OK.”
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YOU WON HERE LAST YEAR AND THEN HAD THE PROBLEM WITH THE CAR. CAN YOU GO BACK THROUGH THAT?
Carl Edwards: “The deal is that no matter what everyone says you’ve got to know in your heart what really happened and the truth and as long as you know the truth, you’re fine. It still was difficult to hear everyone’s commentary that they thought we were purposely cheating. We came here to test last year and we were the fastest car by far. In practice we were fast. In the race we were the fastest car, and if we were gonna cheat, we would have made it a little more discreet. I mean, that oil tank cover was blown off up in the race car. The cool part about it was even with that 100-point penalty, we still scored more points than anyone the whole season and I was really proud of that. If we wouldn’t have won another race after that, that would have been tough. When we won that next race at Texas that felt good just to win another one and move on. That kind of silenced all that. When I heard that happened it was a little bit deflating because I knew what was gonna be said, but there’s nothing you can do about that.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DREW BLICKENSDERFER AND WHY HAS HE BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL WITH THE 17?
Carl Edwards: “Drew is a really, really cool guy for a number of reasons. He’s a real nice person. He’s probably one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around. He’s a lot like Bob Osborne in that respect. He wants to win more than anything and he’s got street smarts. He’s real savvy on a lot of subjects, not just the race car but with people and motivating people and things like that. I think that Drew’s success is no accident. He’s going to be successful. Right now he’s batting 1.000, which is amazing, and hopefully he can keep it up. He’s a really good guy and I’m proud to call him a friend.”
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WE’VE SEEN SOME UNCHARACTERISTIC MISTAKES BY DRIVERS, BUT YOU HAVEN’T HAD ANYTHING LIKE THAT HAPPEN YET. WHY DOES THAT HAPPEN?
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Carl Edwards: “Well, we haven’t been racing long enough for me to make those mistake. I’m sure I’ll make them. I’ll never forget at Dover I drove right by my pit stall leading the race a couple years ago on that first pit stop. I drove right by it and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s genius.’ It’s just easy to do. You’re out there racing and the season is just getting started and there are a lot of new things going on. Who knows if people have changed pit signs or they’ve changed the color of their uniforms. I know it’s been difficult for me to look down the pits and see a black box. I can see Tony Stewart’s real easily, but getting used to seeing the black box and things like that, it’s probably just those little cobwebs and things like that. We all do that stuff. I don’t know the exact reasons, but it’s easy to do is what I’m saying.”
