All-Star: Carl Edwards preview

Carl Edwards on the All-Star Race:

"The All-Star race is such an awesome experience. I'm really looking forward to Saturday night, and I know we'll have a strong Aflac Fusion for the race. It will be a lot like Saturday night dirt track racing with the format the way it is. Everything is a sprint to the end and you go 100 percent every lap and that's going to be fun. The race pays a million dollars to win and everybody wants to win it bad. The 10-lap shootout format is gonna be wild and I'm sure the fans are gonna be on their feet. It's going to be exciting."

Crew chief Bob Osborne on the All-Star Race:

"I am looking forward to returning to Lowe's for the coming events. The All-Star race is always a fun race. There are no points on the line with short sprints for race segments, so everyone goes all out. The format makes for very exciting racing."

FAST FACTS

* Carl Edwards will make his fourth appearance in the All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend. In his previous two starts, Edwards has one top-five and two top-10 finishes.

* ON THE TRACK...Edwards will carry a special silver and black Aflac paint scheme Saturday night in honor of the All-Star race. The No. 99 Aflac crew will be unloading chassis RK-639 for this weekend's events. Edwards raced this Ford Fusion at Texas in April of this year. He started 13th, led 40 laps and finished 10th.

* CARL'S SUIT AUCTIONED FOR AFLAC CANCER CENTER... Aflac will auction off the fire suit worn by Edwards in this weekend's All-Star Race. The proceeds from the auction will benefit the Aflac Cancer Center. The auction, which will be listed on eBay, will begin at 8 a.m. ET on Saturday, May 16 and run through 7:59 a.m. on Sunday, May 31. Bidding starts at $2,500. For more information, visit www.aflacracing.com

* Roush Fenway Racing has won three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star races. Mark Martin won the event in 1998 and 2005, and Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag in the 2004 running.

* The No. 99 Aflac crew will participate in the annual Sprint All-Star Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday night, May 14 at the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte. The event gets underway at 7 p.m. and will be aired at 9 p.m. that evening on SPEED.

-credit: rfr