IT’S EARLY BUT WE SEE SOME DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN THE TOP 12 AND SOME YOU WOULDN’T EXPECT OUTSIDE THE TOP 12. CAN YOU MAKE JUDGEMENTS ABOUT THESE TEAMS OR IS IT TOO EARLY?
Carl Edwards: “I think it’s too early. I think this race, we’ve got kind of a strange start to the season. Daytona is what it is. Everybody knows the points there aren’t representative of the season probably. California is a good indicator, but these next two tracks are gonna be the best ones. Vegas and Atlanta, I think, are gonna apply to whole season more. I think after those two races and then we’ve got the week off after Bristol. I think after Martinsville you’ll be able to say, alright, maybe three-quarters of the top 12 will stay this way, but I think right now it’s too early just because of chance at Daytona and California is kind of not the perfect representation of the season. It’s that two-mile track that is a little different.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT THE TRACK HAS DONE TO THIS RACE TRACK?
Carl Edwards: “I haven’t gone out and looked at it, but in my opinion, wherever you can put those SAFER barriers you’ve got to put them. I’ve seen some of those rescue vehicle escape areas, kind of where the wall bends – those areas at some tracks – I think we saw, I can’t remember who it was, but someone crashed at Kentucky a couple years ago and it was a horrendous crash. You could almost hit 70 or 80 degrees into one of those and I think those have to have SAFER barriers and it looks like they’ve done that. It just means a lot. I know it costs a lot of money and it’s great for them to have stepped up and done that. I hope they’re doing it at all the tracks, whether they’re ISC or SMI tracks.”
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DID THE INCIDENT HERE LAST YEAR WITH THE OIL TANK LID CHANGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT OTHERS WHO HAVE ISSUES LIKE THAT?
Carl Edwards: “I learned that a lot earlier than a year ago. I raced at my local dirt track and this one guy named Jeff Wagner would beat us every night. He beat everybody. It was my first year there and I was the guy who ran like 15th every week or 10th on a good night and everyone just always knew he had traction control and knew he was cheating and it was common knowledge. We all thought, ‘That’s why we’re getting beat,’ and consequently he kept beating us because we didn’t work harder. The year after that we got a new car and I think I won 11 or 13 races or something and now all of a sudden I was cheating and everybody knew we were cheating. And I realized right then that Jeff Wagner had just been doing a better job because I knew we weren’t cheating and I realize that’s common in racing. If you can’t beat them, you’ve got to point your finger at them. So I’ve tried to hang onto that and not do it as much as I can, but we all fall into it.”
DO YOU BREAK THE SEASON DOWN IN SEGMENTS OF WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN POINTS?
Carl Edwards: “We all know that we just have to be in the top 12 with 10 races to go. Bob and I talked about it. Yeah, we won a lot of races last year and that was great, but we didn’t win the championship. We know what it feels like to win races, we just want to win the championship, so, to me, whatever puts us in the best position to do that. If we’re 12th at Richmond and we’ve got a shot at it and we can still go win the championship, as long as we can still do it, then that’s no worse than being first going into it. I guess what I’m saying is I have a couple goals. Number one, just make the chase. Number two, to win the championship and I don’t really care how many races we win doing it as long as we can achieve those goals.”
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