NASCAR NEXTEL Press Releases
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99
Office Depot Taurus, is testing a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series car for
the first time at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for
next month's Daytona 500. Edwards spoke about his goals for the
season during a Preseason Thunder Q&A session.
CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Office
Depot Taurus
KURT WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW THE GONG
SHOW HELPED HIM DEAL WITH THE PRESSURE OF THE CHASE. HAS THAT
EXPERIENCE DONE THE SAME FOR YOU? "To be honest with you, I didn't
go through the Gong Show the same way that Kurt did. Max Jones was
kind of heading up that thing, the way I understand it, and they
kind of picked me at the last minute right before Daytona and I
didn't have to go through that stuff. But it feels like, to me, that
my whole career has kind of felt like that. I've always been just
kind of hanging on by a thread and luckily I got to join in with
Jack Roush and now I feel like things have changed a little bit. So,
for me, every Saturday night I was racing at the local dirt track I
had that stress, so I can only imagine the Chase for the Cup. I will
tell you what, I was at the North Wilkesboro and Darlington watching
the Gong Show this year and, man, I would not have traded places
with those guys for anything. They were worn out."
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THIS SEASON?
"My goals for this season, and our Office Depot 99 team's goals in
the Cup Series is to go out there and not make mistakes that people
plan on us making - to try and not dig ourselves a hole. I want to
get as much experience as I can and, hopefully, be in a position to
win a race or two before the year is over. That's what we really
want to do. I think a victory for us this season would be to be in
the championship chase at the end of the year. At that point, I
think we'll have a little more experience and be able to set our
goals after that, so that's what we're looking forward to. Plus,
Jack has given me the opportunity to drive the Charter car in the
Busch Series, which, to me, is unbelievable. There's nothing other
than that (a championship) that we're focused on in the Busch
Series."
WILL IT BE FUN? "For me, yeah. That's
the way I look at it because I really love to drive race cars. I go
to sleep every night and think, 'Man, this is the greatest thing in
the world.' I don't know if Jack realizes it, but I've only driven
one Busch race really."
JACK ROUSH , Car Owner - No.
99 Office Depot Taurus
"Running one series for a
championship and another series to survive is going to be the
hardest thing he's ever done. It's perfect."
CARL EDWARDS
"That's a dream for every race car
driver out there. That's gonna be a lot of races and it's gonna be
cool."
JACK ROUSH
"It's going to be nearly 80 races
plus the tests, so you're going to be busy."
CARL EDWARDS
"I'm ready. It's gonna be great. I'm
excited. I don't know if that comes across real well, but I'm really
excited."
HOW HAS TESTING GONE SO FAR? "First
of all, the testing is going great. I'm having a blast. Bob Osborne,
my crew chief, we weren't as fast as we wanted to be early in the
day and I was over there asking him all these questions and he said,
'Look, this is my first Daytona as a crew chief.' I was like,
'Alright, I'll lay off for a little while.' We got faster towards
the end of the day and our teammates are really fast, so we feel
pretty good about it. I'm looking forward to the drafting sessions.
As far as my aggression level, I still feel like the guys in the
Nextel Cup Series - all the drivers and teams - deserve a lot of
respect. So, to me, I think the thing to do would be to take our
Office Depot car out there and just take what we can get - go easy -
and maybe at the halfway point of the season take stock and see
where we stand and go after that."
-ford racing-
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