NASCAR Cup

Michigan II: Edwards - Ford Friday interview

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, won at Michigan International Speedway back in June, and has five top-10 finishes in six career starts at the track. Edwards heads into this weekend's race in fifth place in the ...

Published: Aug 18, 2007, 2:12 PM

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Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, won at Michigan International Speedway back in June, and has five top-10 finishes in six career starts at the track. Edwards heads into this weekend's race in fifth place in the standings.

CARL EDWARDS -- No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion

IT HAS TO BE NICE TO COME BACK AS THE MOST RECENT WINNER AT A RACE TRACK. "It's always fun to come back to a place where you won the last race. It gives you a lot of confidence. I feel like our Office Depot team has been building a little bit of momentum since then. I'm a little nervous; we didn't bring the same race car, but this is the time of the season to test stuff, and as much as you'd like to bring the same race car, Bob built some stuff that he thought's better, so that's what we're going to run."

HOW'S THE THUMB? "My thumb's good. At this point, just following the doctor's orders and keeping this little brace on it, keeping it in place so I can get this over with as quickly as possible."

YOU ARE SOLIDLY IN THE TOP 12. WOULD YOU RATHER START THE CHASE NOW, OR WAIT FOUR MORE RACES? "I'm glad that we've got a few weeks left. We went and did some testing this week, we're going to test some more before the chase starts, and I don't think you can ever be prepared enough. Right now, we're not quite as fast as some of the other teams at different places but we're approaching them, so the more time that we have to prepare ourselves, the better?"

YOU HAVE A BIG LEAD IN THE BUSCH STANDINGS. HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK ABOUT WINNING BOTH? "I'd love to win both championships; that's my mission this year. That's why we all do this, so to me it would be an amazing achievement. It would be something that I would be extremely proud of, so I'm working really hard at it."

YOU ALWAYS GIVE AWAY YOUR TROPHIES. IF YOU WIN THE NEXTEL CUP CHAMPIONSHIP, WOULD ANYBODY GET THAT TROPHY? "I don't know. That'll be an easy decision after the hard job of winning it. So, I don't know. That'll be a cool trophy to give away."

THE CREW CHIEFS FOR THE 24 AND 48 RETURN THIS WEEK. WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS AND BNASCAR SITS DOWN THE CREW CHIEFS LIKE THAT, DO YOU THINK, IN THE PUBLIC'S MIND, THAT'S A CREDIBILITY ISSUE FOR NASCAR? "It's just about accountability. Somebody has to be accountable for the fact that the cars are illegal, and the crew chief's the guy that's ultimately accountable for having cars show up at the race track, so I don't know what else NASCAR could do. They fined 'em 100 points and sent the crew chiefs home. If that were two races into the chase, that would be a fatal penalty. It all worked out such most of the people they penalized with those huge points this year, it did not affect their season terminally. Maybe for Dale Jr. and Kurt Busch, it was extremely close, but for Gordon and Johnson, everybody was aware that it really wasn't going to affect their ability to make the chase, it was just NASCAR making an example, and saying, 'Listen, once we're in the chase, these are the penalties that you're going to get, so don't cheat.'

-credit: ford racing

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