NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AAA Texas 500

Topics:  AAA Texas 500

Carl Edwards
November 6, 2011

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

THE MODERATOR: Kasey, thank you.
We're joined in the media center by tonight's second-place finisher, Carl Edwards. He walks away with a three-point lead.
Carl, you didn't get the win, but you are still at the top of the Chase. Talk about that and your run tonight.
CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, proud of our guys for turning what looked like was going to be a bad night overall, or a disaster really in the points, into something that was really manageable, something we can move forward with.
Obviously definitely we wanted to beat Tony tonight and pad that lead a little bit. At the end of the day we can walk out of here with our heads up. We're still the points leaders. The third and fourth guys, I'm not sure how far back they are, but we had to open up a little bit of space on them, which is good.
Man, we're just going to hold Tony to it. They're going to have to run that well to beat us these next two races. I think really it's going to be a great battle. I'm excited about it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Carl.

Q. Carl, I had the impression around lap 150 that you lost a little bit of speed and the second part of the race you improved. Can you tell me what kind of changes you had done.
CARL EDWARDS: We struggled a little bit with the balance. The car was kind of all over the place. I was really proud of the guys for getting it tuned back in. At the end, I think if we would have had one more stop, we could have made another adjustment, made it a little better. I'm sure everybody could say the same thing.
We never got it quite right. Like I said in here on Thursday or Friday, we gave the best performance we could. We lost a little bit of ground. But it could have been a lot worse. So I'm really proud of my guys. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't do anything differently. That was a good, solid race for us.

Q. Looking forward to Phoenix, what do you anticipate there? You did two tire tests there. What do you think of the tire? What do you think your chances are? Did you have confidence when you left the place?
CARL EDWARDS: I think that Phoenix is still a huge unknown. Tony was out there at that tire test with us. I got to see how good those guys were.
I feel like we're going to be pretty good. Yeah, I think really the surprising thing for all of us today was how well Tony ran here. I didn't expect him to run quite that well. Those guys, they did a really good job. It makes me think that Homestead could be a lot closer than I expected before this race.
We'll go to Homestead with the same package, same ideas, and hopefully have a similar performance. It looks like Tony might be in the same boat. Their mile-and-a-half program is good.
We really think next week at Phoenix has a larger opportunity by a landslide to change the outcome of this Chase. That one will be a very important race. You know what I'm saying? If Tony and I run 1-2 at Homestead, there's not going to be much points change if we run like we did tonight, but Phoenix has the potential to be huge.

Q. Carl, you and Tony raced pretty clean on the track. Tony has been throwing down for the last two weeks. I recall last year Jimmie Johnson talking about Denny Hamlin, Jedi mind tricks. At some point are you going to do your Jedi mind tricks on Tony?
CARL EDWARDS: No. I go out and compete as hard as I can. It is fun to joke around a little bit. But at the end of the day, I mean, any extra energy I spend thinking about other stuff or worrying about other things is not spent in the right place. I'm focusing on what I'm doing. It would be really fun to be standing up there last one on stage at the banquet. I might have a couple jokes then. That would be a good time for them. I learned early in life you have to be careful about throwing the jabs out there. Somebody might get you.

Q. Carl, you said you were surprised a little bit about Tony's performance here today. Can you explain why you were surprised. Secondly, that team can say for three straight weeks they've gained points on you. You are still the points leader, but how do you address that with your team because in situations like this it can be easier being the pursuer?
CARL EDWARDS: I think we're very fortunate to have led the points for as long as we have this season. I think the guys, I know myself, have a certain comfort level with it. We've watched the guys make runs at us and then fall away.
At the end of the day it truly doesn't matter what the 14 team does or what Tony does or what anyone else does. All we can do is just go do the best we can do. It might feel comfortable to them to be the position they're in, to be gaining points. But truly the past is history. We've got to go out and run these next two races.
Yeah, I don't underestimate them for a second. I know how good they are. But we're going to be good, as well.

Q. What surprised you about them tonight?
CARL EDWARDS: I was surprised they were able to put together two weeks that were so good. That was really good work on their part. There's nothing saying that that will play into another solid two weeks after that, but it very well could.
We're going to go home, work hard, put all our notes together from our test at Phoenix, do the best we can.
From the way practice went and everything, I thought we'd have a little bit more of an advantage. I thought we'd have a little advantage tonight. They did all their jobs very well.

Q. The last few years in the Nationwide Series till the bitter end you chased the eventual champion, whether it was Kyle or Clint. How do you think that experience of just being there until the very end and never giving up has affected what you're going through right now?
CARL EDWARDS: That's a good question. I forget about those things. But I guess you keep the lessons with you. I think at least to this point the story of our season, the story of this Chase for us has been never quitting, never giving up. No matter how well someone runs, we're going to be right there racing them every lap, racing them hard.
I think that having those championship battles in the Nationwide Series, a couple in the Cup Series lately, I think they've made us tougher in general and a little wiser. I guess the best way to sum it up is to say I feel more comfortable in this points battle than in any other points battle I can remember. I feel like we only have to worry about one other guy. We still have the advantage in the points. I've raced Tony long enough, I feel comfortable with him, he's not going to surprise me with anything. I'm grateful for all that experience. I hope I can turn that into a championship.

Q. It seemed like an extremely clean race. Do you think a lot of the drivers after they kind of saw the 'boys have at it' get out of control Friday night decided to temper things a little bit?
CARL EDWARDS: This track lends itself to clean racing. It's so fast. It's easy to drive a little bit sideways. You don't lose control as quickly. It's a fun racetrack.
There might have been a little more restraint on the part of all the drivers just because of what happened. I can say for myself, I didn't really think about it that much during the night tonight. I think Phoenix will be the test. Everybody is going to be fighting for a place in line on the bottom. You'll see the test of how big a message NASCAR got across there at Phoenix.

Q. Were you at all aware of Burton's fuel situation at the end?
CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, I never cheered so hard for Jeff Burton in my life (smiling). If I could have loaned him some fuel, I would have.
That's what they had to do. I thought that was a good move. They had to do that. I'm sure Bob thought about doing that, thought about us doing it. But as early as he ran out, I'm glad we didn't. I think we did the right thing to stay out there.
I'm really proud of Bob. On a side note, I think he's been a really good leader throughout this whole thing. He's not let me lose my head, he's not flailed and tried for something crazy. He's a huge part, if not the most important part, of why we're leading the points right now.

Q. Do you still think Tony was just all worked up after winning the race?
CARL EDWARDS: I think he was. He's calmed down a little this week. It didn't slow him down any.
Have to bring him over some lunch before Phoenix. Maybe that will help. I hope this roll doesn't last much longer, otherwise this is going to be really tough.

Q. You also said earlier things didn't start off well, could have been a lot worse today. What didn't go right? Almost sounds like this is a pattern. Although you guys are getting the finishes, it's a fight. Why is that happening?
CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, we haven't had a dominant car since Dover. That's been the last time we really had a dominant car. For us to finish the way we've been finishing without those dominant cars I think says a lot about our team. But I'm still waiting. Once we get that dominant car again, I hope we can use it, make the most of it.
But tonight, as frustrating as it is to see Tony go out there and win that race, close in on us, the biggest thing I'm going to go back and talk to my guys about and think about when I leave here is, Hey, take a breath, we're leading the points, we're fighting hard. Two races is a long time. We can't get ahead of ourselves. We can't look in that mirror. We have to keep moving forward.
Hopefully all these experiences of making the most out of something, hopefully we won't have to do that the last two races. Hopefully we're just a little bit faster.

Q. I asked you this Friday and you said, He was still kind of in it. It looks like the 48's run has come to an end. How does that feel that after six years there's going to be a different champion?
CARL EDWARDS: How many points back are they?

Q. I don't know, but a pretty good bit.
CARL EDWARDS: Well, I refuse to count anyone out. I think from what you saw go on this weekend with everything, including the Truck race, NASCAR making rulings, things happening, literally anything can happen in this sport. Until somebody is mathematically out of it, I can't let myself count them out. You know what I mean?

Q. Halfway through the race you were worried about the right front tire.
CARL EDWARDS: It kind of surprised me. As loose as we were at the beginning, Bob said we had a little problem with the right front. For a few runs, I was kind of babying the tires, being real careful. I knew how much we had to lose if we had a tire failure.
I'm assuming it was something we did with the setup because I don't think a lot of people had trouble with the tires. Did anyone pop or blow a tire? I imagine we were a little aggressive on something and might have missed something there.
Yeah, that's not a good feeling. After the first stop, you have to be easy on the right front tire because I already felt I was being easy on the right front tire.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.
CARL EDWARDS: Thank you. See you in Phoenix.