Carl Edwards to Dale Jr: "We're gonna put all this on a restart?"

Carl Edwards, a newly inducted NASCAR Hall of Famer and one of the more successful drivers to never win a NASCAR Cup Series title, opened up about his struggles on and off the race track.

Speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Dale Jr. Download, Edwards reflected deeply on the unprecedented decision to walk away from the sport while at the top of his game. It was a remarkable interview, lasting 85 minutes. Edwards, who won 28 Cup races, was the championship runner-up in 2008, lost to Tony Stewart on a tiebreaker in 2011, and even missed the Championship 4 partly due to a rain-shortened race at Phoenix in 2015.

For many fans, the way he lost the 2016 title seemingly broke Edwards’ will to continue racing in the sport.

Battling Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for several laps in the 2016 Homestead finale, in the late stages of the race Edwards was driving off with the title in his hands. With just 15 laps to go, with terrible timing for Edwards, the caution flag flew.

There was no major incident or debris all over the track: Dylan Lupton was limping along the apron on his way back to the pits with a flat left-rear tire and in the title-deciding race, NASCAR chose it was worth a yellow flag.

The restart that followed would be the last time Edwards would ever be seen behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car. Title rival Joey Logano tried to make a big move to the inside, but Edwards blocked him down the track. Contact was made, and everyone watched in shock as Edwards’ car slammed nose-first into the inside wall before spinning back up the track. Kasey Kahne then nailed his out-of-control car, sending the No. 19 Toyota up into the air before hitting the outside wall. Another car piled in before the destroyed race car screeched to a halt against the Turn 1 wall.

Edwards climbed out, shook hands with the No. 22 team in the pits to show there was no animosity, and then walked away. He never returned.

Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crash

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Keeping the racing pure

Dale Jr. teed up the question well, noting to Edwards how, “you had raced your whole life trusting that the green flag would drop and the checkered flag would end it and that there would be nothing in between that that wasn’t pure.” Edwards once gave an impassioned press conference before the 2016 finale echoing this sentiment, railing against the concept of stages that is now a mainstay in all three of NASCAR’s national divisions.

But as Dale Jr. talked about this, Edwards appeared emotional, even noting how his hands were sweating as he openly wondered how honest he wanted to be before deciding to ‘tell it how it is.’ He then explained how they were couple of major factors, and at first spoke about his religious journey. Previously, he had been an atheist before finding faith later in life, saying: “I’ve come to realize at 45 years old that if I try to write down a list of all the things that God didn’t give me, that I did myself, there’s an empty sheet of paper in front of me.”

Edwards called his career a gift that he was meant to enjoy, but it seemed as if the enjoyment was fading and that something was compelling him to take another path. “I was feeling something a lot bigger than me and I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. It was the strangest feeling. I knew that whole weekend.”

Apparently, his RV broke down on the way to track, several ‘strange issues’ were going at home, he almost wrecked in practice with Danica Patrick, and a mid-race mistake in the pits nearly made him give up. Still, he pushed forward, charging back through the field until that infamous caution.

”I know NASCAR was throwing those cautions to make it more exciting”

“There was something about that caution,” said Edwards. “It was like the final thing to say damnit, you’re not supposed to win this thing. This is not supposed to happen.”

He then made a bold statement that is tacitly believed by many to have been going on during that era of the sport: “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, and we’re all in this sport to entertain, and they were trying their hardest at the time. But it was an outstanding set of circumstances.

“It was very odd, but now I realize, it was the best thing in the world for me I was able to get the message that I did not belong in a race car. That is not what I was supposed to be doing with my life. Looking back, I’m so thankful for it.”

Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, crashed car

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

He wrestled throughout the off-season over the decision to hang up the helmet and no one, not even Joe Gibbs, expected it to happen. But this thought kept coming to him: ”I’m going to get to Homestead at the end of 2017. I’m going to do everything just right and they’re gonna throw a caution with five to go? And we’re gonna put all this on a restart?”

It’s something he didn’t want to deal with again.

All of that combined with wanting to spend more time with his family and his thoughts drifting towards the risk of injury combined led him to the decision he made on January 11th, 2017. At the time, he was just 36 years old.