Carl Edwards Friday Media Visit

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, along with his wife, Kate, are the proud parents of Anne Edwards, who was born earlier this week. Carl spoke about the experience of becoming a father.

YOU’RE A DAD.
CARL EDWARDS: “Thank you very much. She’s a day-and-half, almost two days old now. She’s doing well. I just talked to Kate and, to say the least, that’s a life-changing experience. I’m just very blessed. Everything went very well and Kate is doing great. It’s just amazing.”

HOW WILL THE RAIN FORECAST CHANGE HOW YOU APPROACH TODAY?
CARL EDWARDS: “Yeah, one more thing about the baby. I want to thank Erik Darnell for being there the last couple of weeks and standing by. I know it’s agonizing for him to stand there and just watch all that practice and racing and not get to drive the car, so that was really nice of Erik. And another thing I want to say is Mike Kelley did a really good job on our Nationwide team and he pointed out to both of us that he left us with the point lead, so it’s up to us to screw this up. He’s gonna be our director of competition over there, so that worked out really well. As far as the rain, they say it’s going to rain, so in Cup practice we will focus on race trim to prepare for the race in case we don’t get any practice tomorrow. And then in the Nationwide car we’ll just prepare to race and, hopefully, we’ll get it in tomorrow, but if we don’t it won’t change the Nationwide practice very much. Cup practice will be different because we’ll spend less time on qualifying.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT A DRIVER’S FOCUS WITH THE BABY BEING SUCH A BIG PART OF YOUR LIFE OUTSIDE THE TRACK?
CARL EDWARDS: “I haven’t been in the car yet and everything that happens is new. I just called to check on Kate and she was eating something and was kind of choking on it a little bit. I thought something was wrong and she was choked up about something. I about had heart failure on that. That tore me up. She was like, ‘No, something just went down the wrong way.’ So it’s all new to me, but I feel a lot more calm now. There is a lot less anxiety because everything did go well and we’re not waiting. Waiting is the hardest part.”

DID YOU TRAVEL YESTERDAY? IT MUST HAVE BEEN HARD TO LEAVE.
CARL EDWARDS: “Yeah, it was. When I left, I kind of looked back. I was driving my truck and I thought, ‘Wow, I have a family.’ That’s pretty interesting, so it’s definitely a different emotion than I’ve ever had. My one buddy tells me, ‘Oh, you wait. You’re gonna really love racing now.’ I guess that’s because you get to leave when they’re crying, but I’m not to that point yet, so it was different.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY GUILT?
CARL EDWARDS: “No, I didn’t feel guilty. We all have jobs and everybody has to go do their job, and, to put it in perspective, one of Kate’s best friends has a baby and her husband is serving over in Afghanistan and he didn’t see their baby until she was three months old and he was only home for two weeks and had to leave again for six months. So I’ve got a great situation relative to a lot of folks who are out there doing very important jobs.”

WILL THE WEATHER THREAT CHANGE QUALIFYING AT ALL?
CARL EDWARDS: “It might help us. It seems like the harder we try, the slower we go. Right now, what we’re focused on — what Drew has been working on and what Bob’s been working one, what everyone has been working on — is trying to figure out what we’re missing. The more time we can get to practice race stuff the better, and I think that, in a way, not having to focus on qualifying is a little bit of a blessing. We can try some things we’ve been wanting to try because, let’s face it, we’ve got to get better and we’ve got to get faster and this track is representative of a lot of the ones we’ll be racing at this season that are gonna make a difference. So, for me, I think it’s good and I think from a fan’s perspective they might see some comers and go-ers when the race starts because there will be a lot of guys that are slower than they could have been because they’re not working on it.”

WHAT WAS WEDNESDAY LIKE AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE NAME ‘ANNE’?
CARL EDWARDS: “First of all, the name was simple. That’s what Kate wanted to call her, so that was it. I started to protest a little bit just because. I didn’t really have a better name, and she made it clear that’s what she really wanted. So it’s Anne. We’re gonna call her Annie. Wednesday was really just amazing. I had a lot of different emotions that I didn’t plan on. When she was born, it was like, ‘Wow.’ I’m focused on this baby and you have all these emotions. Then we’re over there at the table and they were doing everything — cut the cord — and then I thought, ‘My wife is laying right over there. Is she alright?’ So then I run back over there and I’m talking to her. It was just a whole rush of things that I thought I was prepared for, but I wasn’t. And then after that just being able to sit there with Kate and Annie. I’m sure anyone that’s a parent can tell you how that feels. It’s just amazing. It’s a miracle.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT NATIONWIDE RACING HERE AT VEGAS?
CARL EDWARDS: “The Nationwide racing here is a lot of fun. We had one of the most exciting finishes I’ve ever been a part of in the Nationwide Series with Mark, and I think it was Brad Keselowski. That was wild. It didn’t turn out good for me, but it was exciting for the fans. It’s a fun race track. They’re high speeds. The cars drive well around here, so it’s just a fun race. It’s a good race and it’s Las Vegas. Everyone loves to come here. We get a lot of fans and I hear throughout the year people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, we were at Vegas. We had a good time.’ It’s the way we’re supposed to race. It’s a lot of fun.”

WHEN JIMMIE WINS A RACE THAT HE LUCKED IN TO, HOW ANNOYING IS THAT?
CARL EDWARDS: “It’s pretty annoying when people say that stuff, but there’s always people who just can’t accept the fact that somebody is doing a really good job and, no matter what, they have to take that little dig. That’s just part of competition. It looked to me like he did a pretty good job. They did get lucky with pit road, but I think Jimmie said it best — he hasn’t been just lucky for the last four years and 48 wins. I had a little taste of that with our win here a couple years ago when the oil cooler lid came off and just having to listen to all those people. It doesn’t bother you so much as it’s just like, ‘C’mon guys. That’s all you’ve got?’”

HAVE YOU CHANGED A DIAPER YET?
CARL EDWARDS: “Yes, I changed a diaper. Matt and Katie Kenseth let me do a little training the other week and that actually helped me out a lot. I think Matt had a good laugh about it, but it prepared me for what was to come. So Kate, she was laying in bed so I changed the first four or five diapers and it went pretty well. It was good and very, very funny.”

IS IT HARDER TO GAUGE WHERE YOUR TEAM IS RIGHT NOW WITH THE SPOILER CHANGE COMING DOWN THE ROAD?
CARL EDWARDS: “We’ve got the tires that are a little different. The spoiler is coming, and, yes, we’ve only had two races, but California is a pretty good indicator. This one will be the best. I think when we come out of here, based on California being mediocre at best for us, if we’re not out here with fast cars and leading laps, we’re already buckling down so I don’t know what we’re gonna do. But we’ll know where we stand, so, hopefully, we’ll come out of here good. The things that are different are good for us. The more that we can change right now, the better off we’re going to be. At the current rate, we just have not been good enough, so anything that comes along that shakes things up is good for us.”