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Ford Nationwide Homestead - Edwards Wins

Saturday November 15, 2008

 

· Carl Edwards captured his 20th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory and first at Homestead Miami Speedway

· The Homestead Miami Speedway win was the ninth for Ford in 2008

· This is Edwards’ seventh victory of 2008

· Ford has now won five of the 13 NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Homestead Miami Speedway

· Ford has now won 161 NASCAR Nationwide Series races

· This is the 98th win for team owner Jack Roush. He is the winningest owner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – (finished 1st, qualified 2nd) – THERE WAS A LATE RESTART AND YOU HELD OFF KYLE BUSCH FOR THE WIN. “That is a great win. To be able to hold off 18 [Kyle Busch] as strong as they are. That was a good race. I had a really good time. Congratulations to Clint and those guys. He is a class act. It is no good to finish second in the championship, but I know he will be a good champion for Nationwide. If I have to get beat by somebody a dirt racer from Emporia, Kansas is the best guy to get beat by. I just want to thank Save-a-Lot, Scotts, World Financial Group, Under Armor, Ford Motor Company and especially the fans for showing up in such great numbers for these Nationwide events.” HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE BATTLE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR? “One of the neatest things about this series and about the championship is that it is different from the Cup Series in that it is all season. It is not tonight that determined this championship. We will be back next year and I hope Clint comes back and races with us, that would be fun. The great thing is I think we have a lot to look forward to. We have a great team both here and on the Cup side. There is no shame in giving a hundred-percent effort and finishing second. That was the best we could do.”

PRESS CONFERENCE –

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – THOUGHTS ABOUT WINNING TODAY’S RACE. “Yeah, it was a great race, a lot of fun. I really had a good time racing with Kyle there. That was a good race. Man, I know Clint had to be to sweating those last few laps because some of those guys behind him had tires. I thought, ‘Man, it could happen.’ Drew did a great job, my guys did a great job and we had a car that was fast enough to win and we did everything right. If I could go back through the season and pick out 21 points, that’d be great, but we can’t, it’s a full season. Clint earned the championship. He’ll be a great champion. It’s neat to see how excited his family and how excited he is. I’m as happy as I can be for another guy to beat me and I hope he enjoys it.”

DREW BLICKENSDERFER – No. 60 crew chief – A LOT OF STRATEGY HAD TO BE UNFOLDED THERE TOWARDS THE END AND IT SEEMED LIKE YOU MADE THE RIGHT CALLS. “Yeah, you know, we had to do what they didn’t do. Basically we wanted to put as much space between us and them as possible. The way it worked out, the 2 [Bowyer] pretty much stayed on our game plan and they were running good enough that they could stay within four or five car lengths from us most of the time. So, it was tough to get off sequence with them. But at the end I saw last night’s race, took stuff from that and knew that the only way we were going to have a chance to win the championship, let alone the race, was stay out. Hopefully Clint was far enough back and he would come and get tired, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

JACK ROUSH – No. 60 team owner – YOU’VE GOT TO BE PROUD OF THIS RACE TEAM. “It’s been a super year. The race team has done a great job coming together. Drew is going to be really good in this business, I think as good as any of the crew chiefs that are famous for their success. All of our sponsors have hung with us this year. It’s been a great year. It’s been a pleasure to be involved in the Nationwide series and to be this close for a second year. If I look back, the only thing I was able to do, as an owner, was to be able to race with Carl and Drew in the Nationwide series. That would be enough for me. It’s been a great pleasure.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – IN THESE LAST FEW RACES, YOU’VE HAD TO JUST RUN FOR THE WINS. IS THAT KIND OF A RELIEF RATHER THAN WORRYING? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT JUST BEING ABLE TO GO OUT AND RUN FAST? “I’m kind of thinking about just racing like that all the time now. I can’t imagine why you’d race for points. We see to have accumulated a lot points by just being aggressive. There is a fine line. You have to be careful. I’ve taken a lot of not very smart chances, chances that were risky, but it has been fun. I’ve enjoyed it. Tonight went as well as it could have. For one race, it couldn’t have gone any better. No matter how tomorrow goes, the thing is this winter, I can go into this off-season knowing that we’re going to be tough next year. We’re going to be tough over here in the Nationwide Series and in the Cup Series. We’ve grown a lot and had a lot of fun.” HOW DO YOU LIKE BEING THE IN-RACE REPORTER? “Yeah, a lot of people have commented on it and say they enjoy it and I’m glad they do. It’s very strange to be talking in your car and know that you’re talking across the world, I guess, from your race car. That’s pretty neat. I think Dale Jarrett does a great job with it and I enjoy doing it. There are times, like tonight and I think it was Atlanta, it’s the last restart and we’re leading the race and here comes Dale asking me questions and I think to myself, ‘Man, should I be doing this? I don’t know if I should be talking at this point.’ But it doesn’t seem to affect the race and its kind of fun. It takes my mind off any stress I have there.” YOU DID ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU COULD DO TONIGHT. DO YOU LEAVE HERE HAPPY OR FRUSTRATED? “Definitely it’s frustrating to not win the championship. That’s what we set out to do this season. But I believe that I understand the spots where we lost it. I know the things that I did that cost us some points. I think over the last 10 or 15 races that we have executed and performed at a really high level. If we can continue that going into the next season, then it might almost be worth it, to learn what we learned this season even though it cost us a championship. Yeah, so it is frustrating but, trust me, there’s no shame in trying your hardest and giving it all you got and getting beat. You just got to keep going.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – DID YOU EVER RACE AGAINST CLINT ON THE DIRT TRACKS IN THE MIDWEST? “Yeah, one time I raced against him in Moberly, Missouri, and I beat him. It was awesome. That day felt real good. It doesn’t make up for this day, but it felt good. Clint’s a really good guy. It’s so cool, his Mom and Dad come to the races. The way he told me the story, he started racing out of the corner of his Dad’s tow truck shop. He’s a great racer. That day in Moberly, if you would have told Clint and I would be racing for the Nationwide Series Championship in 2008, I think that was 2001 or something, I would have laughed so hard. We were just a couple of dirt racers having some fun there. It’s very neat.”

DREW BLICKENSDERFER – No. 60 crew chief – IS CARL GOING TO BE THE FAVORITE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH RATHER THAN COMING IN HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON LIKE YOU’VE DONE? “You know, I think it doesn’t change our approach like Carl talked about earlier. He knew things that he could probably look back in the year and think maybe I should do this better. There’s a lot of things I could have done better. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve raced for points. My rookie year as a crew chief I was fortunate enough to be with Danny O’Quinn, we won Rookie of the Year, but racing for points in and out against tough competition was new to me. There’s certain things throughout the year that I look back on and think, man, we could have got five bonus points there, or, man, I shouldn’t have been that aggressive with that. I think the things I’ve learned over the last six or seven months on the 60 car have prepared me for championship battle.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO KEEP UP THE PACE OF DOING BOTH SERIES FULL TIME? “I don’t know. I’m enjoying it right now racing with Drew and these guys. Saturdays are a blast. To be able to win races and have my friends and my family here have a chance to race for championships, it’s good. So, as long as Jack will let me do it, NASCAR will let me do it and we’re competitive, I plan on doing it for a while.”

JACK ROUSH – No. 60 team owner – “That was a great question. I’m glad you asked that. I thought I understood that next year was the last year you wanted to do that.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – “No, I didn’t say that. I wasn’t sure. I’m kind of going a year at a time. But I don’t really know. You were sitting here a year from now and we’ve won 10 races and a championship. It’s up to you guys.” WHAT DO YOU THINK THE MISSOURI FOOTBALLS FANS WOULD HAVE SAID WHEN THEY SAW YOU HUGGING THE KANSAS JAYHAWK? “When is the MU-KU game? Do you know? Well, were going to smoke ‘em, all right. I hope Clint has a tough time with it. I hope he has a bad day that day.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion – YOU ARE KNOWN FOR DOING LOTS OF UNIQUE THINGS ON THE OFF-SEASON, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW AND WITH THE EXTRA MONTH OF IN JANUARY? “For about an hour and a half today, we were working on flights for me and all my buddies. We’re going to go to London and do the race of champions, then from London we’re going to Thailand and we’re going to take our bicycles over there and were going on some big bicycle ride adventure over there. I don’t have an itinerary yet, but it will be exciting, I guarantee you. Now, we have all this time off in January. I don’t know what I’ll do then. We’re gonna have some fun, I guarantee you. We’ll try and take a camera so you guys can see it. It should be exciting. Tom Giacchi [crew member] in Bangkok is going to be priceless. I’m excited.

JACK ROUSH – No. 60 team owner – YOU’VE TOYED WITH BUILDING A TEST TRACK AT SOME POINT A FEW YEARS AGO. WITH THE TESTING ANNOUNCEMENT YESTERDAY, HAVE THOSE PLANS COME UP IN YOUR HEAD AT ALL? “You’re the second person that’s asked me that question. I have neither the money nor the inclination to build a test track and also have had conversations with Mike, and I don’t have any intention to try to get around their test rules. If we could organize a situation where all the established teams would hold hands and resolve not to test outside of the NASCAR mandated or approved testing, not go to the skid pads, not go to Canada, not to go to Pikes Peak or any of the places they’re checking on, I’d be happier with that than to skirt around. If everybody else does it, we may have to do it, too, but that’s certainly not in the spirit of trying to save the teams money and trying to operate in these severe economic circumstances.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion – (finished 23rd, qualified 3rd) – “I just ran on the high side and got loose in one and two and slapped the wall. We had our front fender or something rubbing and I cut a tire and hit the wall a second time and it was kind of downhill from there. We got it fixed so we were able to finish because it was better than having a DNF.”

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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