Report: Edwards won't race in 2017
Columbia�s Carl Edwards is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing and will not race in 2017 to pursue other interests, FOXSports.com reported Tuesday, citing multiple anonymous sources.
The news is a stunner, as Edwards is still at the top of his game. He narrowly missed the Sprint Cup championship last year, leading the final race until a late crash relegated him to fourth place in the season standings. Edwards, 37, has raced in NASCAR�s top series since 2004. The 2016 season was his second with Gibbs after spending most of his career with Roush Fenway Racing.
FOXSports.com reported that JGR planned a press conference for Wednesday that would announce Daniel Suarez, the reigning XFINITY Series champion, is replacing Edwards in the No. 19 Toyota.
Although he never won a Sprint Cup season championship, Edwards was consistently among the contenders, finishing in the top five of the season standings six times. He placed second overall in 2008 and 2011, the latter a heartbreaking ending in which Edwards and Tony Stewart finished in a tie in points but Stewart won on a tiebreaker. It was another near-miss in 2016, when Edwards led the championship race until a crash with Joey Logano on a restart with 10 laps left ended his hopes.
Edwards has 28 career race victories.
The FOXSports.com report didn�t indicate what Edwards plans to do next, and the Tribune could not reach Edwards for comment.
Three years ago, in an interview with the Tribune, Edwards discussed how long he expected to continue racing.
�I should be able to be as good as I am or better for the next 10 years,� he said then. �That�s a realistic window. � I�ll tell you one thing, it really depends on how much fun you�re having and the group of people around you.�
Racing has been part of Edwards� life since a young age. As a child, he accompanied his father, Carl Edwards Sr., who was a dirt-track racer, around Missouri and the Midwest. He started racing on a fake ID in Godfrey, Ill., before he turned 18.
After graduating from Rock Bridge High School, he attended the University of Missouri part-time and continued racing, winning Modified and Pro-Modfied division titles at Capital Speedway in Holts Summit. All the while, he marketed himself energetically to media and potential sponsors and stayed in the ear of car owners.
He volunteered at Mike Mittler�s garage in Foristell, and, in 2002, he took over as a midseason driving replacement for Mittler�s truck in the Craftsman Truck Series. His performance in that series � which included the unveiling of his trademark victory back flip � caught the eye of Jack Roush, who signed Edwards to race in the truck series. When Cup series driver Jeff Burton left Roush to join Childress Racing in August 2004, Edwards was tabbed as his replacement, and he placed 10th in his first race at NASCAR�s highest level.
For several years he raced both the top- and second-tier NASCAR series, winning the second-tier Busch Series season title in 2007.
He soon became one of NASCAR�s biggest names, becoming a spokesman for the likes of Ford (before he left Roush for Gibbs), Aflac and Subway, among others. Edwards continues to live in Columbia and is married with two children.
This article was first published online on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 9:46 a.m.