Carl Edwards sat down with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download and arguably participated in the sort of candid conversation that everyone has wanted from him since January 2017.
In the clearest possible terms, Edwards articulated why he suddenly retired after the 2016 Cup Series season and detailed exactly to which extent the late caution that denied him a championship factored into that decision.
Flashback to that night at Homestead: Edwards had a comfortable lead with 15 laps to go when Dylan Lupton slowed with a flat tire. The caution came out even though Lupton never made any contact with anything and whatever debris it may have generated was safely off the racing surface.
On the next restart, Edwards crashed with Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson went onto win his seventh Cup Series championship. Edwards told Earnhardt that he went to Key West for a week shortly afterwards with a great deal of uncertainty over if he wanted to continue doing this for a living.
And he explained why to Earnhardt.
“So first of all, I don’t deserve anything and I’ve learned this … we were at church the other day and anybody knows me well, knows I’m historically an atheist at best but I’ve come to realize at 45 years old that if I try to write down a list of all the things God didn’t give me and that I did myself, there is just an empty sheet of paper in front of me.”
Edwards said then, that he views everything in his life as a gift.
“I was wrestling with some things like this at the time. I was living something that wasn’t my plan. I worked so hard my whole life and felt like I deserved to win this thing and it was taken away from me. What I realized is that there was a bigger plan than mine and all that stuff played out just perfectly. I was just along for the ride. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it but it was the strangest feeling.”
Edwards said there were so many signs that weekend. His motorhome broke down twice that week on the way to the track so he didn’t have it with him. He said he had issues at home. Edwards said there was nearly a crash with Danica Patrick in practice. He pointed to a slow pit stop that was his fault behind the wheel.
“I remember pulling out, weaving behind the pace car thinking I did it — I gave up my whole, everything I ever worked for. I’ll never forget (crew chief) Dave Rogers coming on the radio and saying, ‘we got ’em right where we want ’em.’
“And we went and we passed every single one of the guys I had to beat,” Edwards said. “And there was something about that caution. It was like the final thing to say, ‘you’re not supposed to win this thing. This is not supposed to happen.’
“I know NASCAR was throwing those cautions to make it more exciting. That’s a fact. And I specifically talked to people about it and that’s that. We’re all in this sport to entertain, and they were trying their hardest at the time. But my point in saying all of that is that it was an outstanding set of circumstances. It was very odd. But now I realize it was the best thing in the world. I was able to get the message that I did not belong in a race car. That’s not what I was supposed to be doing with my life. And looking back, I’m so thankful for it. I mean, it changed my life at that moment in a way that I could never have understood how great it was. So I know that’s a roundabout answer and it might be too much to swallow but that’s, that’s the way I see it.”
Earnhardt said it was hard to believe that Edwards could simply walk away from a competitive situation that good, especially when it’s all that he had known to that point. Edwards responded, again, that the way NASCAR calls the end of these races contributed a great deal to making that decision easy for him.
“So you’re exactly right. I wanted to win that championship. It’s everything I had worked for. That’s it. That’s the prize you want more than anything in the world. And yes, I believe that was snatched. So, that’s part of it and that was very difficult. Okay. So, I had to look and say, ‘okay, let’s just go to the next year. Let’s go to 2017, right?’ Let me just be real smart. Let me just think this through. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go and I am going to continue. I’m going to put everything in my life second in the backseat, and I’m going to go starting at Daytona, and I’m going to drive the hell out of this race car like I’ve been doing for 13, 14 years. And I’m going to run this thing all the way to the end and give everything I got another year of my life. …
“I’m going to do everything just right. And they’re going to throw a caution with five to go, and we’re going to put all this on a restart. And I thought, I don’t know if spending a whole year of my life and all the things you give up and possibly give up for one restart. That’s really disappointing but it actually helped me to say, ‘hey, you know what, this is the reality, that’s how this could go, and is it worth it to you?”
And it wasn’t with a growing family and a life that could be lived outside of a race car.
Why he left Roush Fenway
Edwards was developed at the NASCAR ranks by Roush Racing and he competed there at the highest level for a decade before joining Joe Gibbs Racing prior to the 2015 season.
“I’ve never really talked about this but the cars, we just could not get them to turn in the center of the corner. We just could not get the cars to do what we needed to do and we did that for a long time. And I thought, I just wanted to try something different and we moved to Gibbs.”
Edwards confirmed that Gibbs had tried on multiple occasions to recruit him too.
“A lot of people don’t know that Gibbs and I had talked at points through my career and there’d been some times where I’d really looked over there and he had recruited me real hard,” Edwards said. “When we finally came up with the deal to do this, he said, ‘Hey, there’s one last thing.’ He said, ‘I’m going to have a meeting with the drivers because this is a big deal and the drivers are steering the ship here and if they don’t want you here, then we’re not going to do it.”
Edwards said he Coach reported back that he got glowing reviews from the likes of Matt Kenseth, who had a mixed relationship with at times while they were teammates at Roush, and even Kyle Busch who also had several run-ins with him over the years.
That was a humbling experience, Edwards said.
The fake punch
Edwards also addressed a blow-up between himself and Kenseth, then at Roush at Martinsville in October 2007, when he faked a punch while leaving the track.
It was the culmination of months of tension between them.
“Matt is so smart, he is so wise and he doesn’t mince any slack,” Edwards said. “He is going to give you exactly what you give. He knew exactly how to push my buttons right to the edge. He was like a black belt at screwing with me. I don’t remember what he did and he didn’t do anything that was over the line but he just got me boiling inside.”
Edwards said he was inadvertently encouraged by then crew chief Bob Osborne.
“I was so pissed, Matt, again and I was so pissed and I don’t remember what he did or didn’t do but I was mad,” Edwards said. “I went in the hauler and shouted ‘I don’t know what to do’ and Bob said ‘I would punch him in the face,’ and I thought ‘that’s a great idea.’
“I walked down, and sure enough, lord puts Matt right where I was going to climb over the wall and I thought what a perfect time and I’m going to punch him in the face. Then I realized, this is stupid, I don’t really want to punch this guy in the face, and it was awful, so I walked away from that …”
Edwards said Osborne told him, ‘I was joking and that’s the dumbest thing in the world, Matt’s your t teammate,’ and that he got a call from sponsor Office Depot expressing disappointment.
“You looked like the biggest insecure, bully, jerk ever,” the sponsor said according to Edwards.
Years later, Edwards is grateful for how Kenseth handled it.
“Matt is so incredible,” Edwards said. “He brushed that off and showed me so much grace. What a guy.”
Other storylines
- Stories about Dale Jr. and Carl’s various rivalries and spats over the years
- The culture of Roush versus Gibbs
- How Earnhardt actually met Edwards’ father long before he realized it
- Why Edwards is coming back to do TV now
- Edwards on his passion for sailing the world
This was an objectively powerful hour and a half of storytelling so everyone owes it their fandom to watch or listen to the full episode.
