Question: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT LAST WEEKEND’S DAYTONA 500 AND ABOUT THIS WEEKEND’S RACE?
Carl Edwards: “Last Week did not end up the way we wanted, but it was cool that Ford was in Victory Lane. It was neat to see Matt win the race. This is place is a lot of fun for me. I still haven’t seen video of what happened last week, so I don’t know exactly what happened in that wreck. I’m sure they’re figuring that out right now. I love racing here. It’s a fun race track. We were really good in practice, and this was the start of a really great season last year, so hopefully we can have a good run here and get started the same way.”
Question: DALE EARNHARDT JR. IS ALSO SPEAKING RIGHT NOW. HE’S KIND OF GOING THROUGH WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH LAST YEAR AFTER TALLADEGA. HOW DOES A DRIVER HANDLE THAT, AND WHAT DOES A DRIVER DO TO REGAIN THE CONFIDENCE OF HIS PEERS?
Carl Edwards: “It’s racing, and there are going to be wrecks in racing, and there’s going to be wrecks for all different kinds of reasons. I’ve been involved in wrecks that I had nothing to do with, and I’ve been involved in wrecks where I’ve had everything to do with. I think that we all make mistakes and that’s just what happened. That’s racing. So, you’ve just got to move on and tell everybody just to deal with it. It’s part of the game, you know?”
Question: IS IT A DIFFICULT PART OF THE GAME?
Carl Edwards: “I’d say it is. It never feels good. It’s not good to wreck at all – if it’s not your fault, at least you can say, hey, I did the best I could do. But when it’s something – in my past, when I’ve caused a wreck I always feel the worst. You think, ‘Great, I’m just going to go ahead and leave and go home now.’ It’s not the best feeling. That’s just part of it. If you don’t ever make mistakes, you’re probably not trying hard enough.”
Question: CONSIDERING THERE WAS NO TESTING, DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’D HAVE OUT HERE?
Carl Edwards: “That’s a good question. I didn’t know what to expect today. I didn’t know if we were going to be fast or slow or whatever. It looks like we’re pretty good. It looks like Jimmie’s real good. So, I don’t think a ton has changed, but we haven’t gotten into race practice. I’m sure there’s a lot of teams still that have a lot of things to do. So, I think you’ll really know after race practice, kind of how everybody stacks up.”
Question: MANY PEOPLE HAVE SAID THE SEASON STARTS HERE. DOES IT? CAN ANYTHING BE LEARNED FROM DAYTONA, OR SHOULD EVERYTHING JUST BE THROWN OUT?
Carl Edwards: “I think the season really starts here. Daytona is such a huge event and it’s a different type of racing than we’re going to race the rest of the season, and it kind of stands alone, literally and figuratively. I really feel like this is where you’re going to see how strong your pit crew is, how good your relationship is with your crew chief, and if the engineering you’ve been working on work, and the things that work here are going to apply at a lot of race tracks. So, yeah, everyone’s playing close attention. We’re racing now. We’re going to be doing the same thing week after week for 34 or 35 more weeks.”
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