Carl Edwards is a part-timer teacher-turned race driver who has gone to the University of Missouri, probably in search of an alternative career path. But, as fate would have in store for Carl, he was to end up on the NASCAR tracks behind the wheels of a monster machine.
Born to a race driver father, Carl had seen racing as a part of his life from an extremely early age. It came as no surprise as he took to the sport behind his father who had won over 200 feature events in Modified stock cars and in the midget series all over the Midwestern parts of the country.
| Born | 15 Aug 1979 |
| Nationality |
United States
|
Carl signed up with Roush Fenway racing in 1999 to participate in the NASCAR Whelan All-American Series championships in the “Modified” segment. He took to the pro-modified segment in 2000 and in the two years, managed two race wins only. In 2001, he almost disappeared off of the radar with disappointing performances throughout the season.
But he was back in 2002 as he won the Baby Grand Stock Car Association National Championship title to find new avenues open up for him. In 2003, he was part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and got the title of Rookie of the Year.
His performance improved many notches in 2004 as he got six wins, 9 top-five finishes and 17 top-ten finishes on his way to the fourth spot in the standings. He was also a part of the Sprint Cup where his one top-five finish and 5 top-ten finishes took him to 37th place after just 13 starts in the season.
He moved to the NASCAR Nationwide series in 2005 and as predicted by many, romped home in third place. He had a similar performance in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series as he won four races and had 15 top-five finishes and 21 top-ten finishes. He thoroughly deserved his third place finish at the end of the season.
After a tremendous Rookie year, he had a slump in his Sprint Cup form although his NASCAR Nationwide series was going as strong as ever. He finished at second place in the Nationwide series but went winless in the Sprint Cup. Just 10 top-five finishes and 20 top-ten finishes saw him come in at 12th place in the standings.
In 2007, he came back strongly in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and won 3 races to end his 52 race winless streak. His 9th place finish got him a shot at the Chase to the Sprint Cup. His Nationwide series was even better. After a third place and second place finish in two consecutive years, there was only one logical conclusion to his third year-a championship win.
With such a steady progress chart, it is inevitable that Carl will begin to appear amongst the top performers in the sport. It is just a matter of time before that happens but till then, he will continue to entertain his fans with his immaculate driving and determination.
