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a retired American NASCAR Cup Series driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the #19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards' big break came in 2001, when he competed in seven NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events for Mittler Brothers Motorsports #63. His best finish in the seven races was 8th at Kansas Speedway. He also ran one Xfinity Series race for Bost Motorsports, finishing 38th at Gateway International Raceway. However, it was enough to impress Jack Roush, and Edwards became a full-time Truck Series competitor in 2003 driving the #99 Ford. He won Rookie-of-the-Year honors in addition, to three race wins, eventually finishing 8th in the points standings at the end of the season. In August 2004, he made his Cup Series debut, replacing Jeff Burton, who left the team, in the No. 99 Ford Taurus for Roush Racing, at the Michigan International Speedway. He finished 10th. He drove the #99 Ford for the remainder of the 2004 NASCAR Cup season. In 2005, Edwards became a full-time driver in both the Cup and Xfinity Series and he

and he made history in the process of winning. On March 19, 2005, Edwards won the Aaron's 312 driving his #60 Charter sponsored Ford, at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, recording his first Xfinity Series win. The next day, he beat Jimmie Johnson by 2-hundredths of a second to win the Golden Corral 500 at the same track for his first Cup Series win driving the #99 Scott's sponsored Ford; and he did the trademark back-flip that he had done after ever race he won all his race career. For his entire Cup career with Roush he would drive a #99 car. Edwards became the first driver in NASCAR history to pick up his first career Xfinity and Cup Series wins in the same weekend. 2006 saw Edwards go win-less and finish 12th in the points. Meanwhile in the Xfinity series he started a string of good season of runs. He finished second in the points race in 2006; and won the Championship in 2007. The next three seasons in the Xfinity series Edwards

captured 16 checked flags; and finished second in the points each season. He captured three wins in 2007 in the Cup series and improved to 9th in the points. Edwards won nine times in 2008 winning three of the season's last four races and finishing second in points. Edwards again went win-less in 2009 and fell to 11th in the points standings before rebounding to garner two wins and a fourth place points finish in 2010. 2011 saw Edwards only win once, but the end of the season points chase end in a tie with Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart would win in a tie-breaker. In 2012 the Roush program began to slip in performance. Edwards didn't post any wins and only three top 5 finishes; slipping to 15th in the points. While he did win twice in 2013. he couldn't finish any better than 13th

in the points that season. It was much the same in 2014. In 2015 Edwards left the #99 car of Roush Racing, to go and drive for team owner Joe Gibbs (as Edward's teammate Matt Kenseth had done the previous season). Edwards posted two wins the first season with Gibbs and made a good run at the championship title; being eliminated from the Chase just before the final race. In 2016 Edwards had a strong season running up front in many races and claiming three wins and advancing to the final race to run for the Chase Championship. He ran up front early in that race; but had an accident in the event and finished fourth in the points. As the 2017 season was set to kick off; Edwards was signed to return to Joe Gibbs racing wheeling the #19 Arris Toyota. But on January 10th just six weeks before the Daytona 500 was set be ran; he

announced that he was retiring effective immediately to pursue other interest outside of driving. At a press conference the following day he started by thanking his owners; Mittler Brothers; Roush; Gibbs; also the other drivers; the fans; the media. His reason he was retiring he said that he was personally satisfied with his career. Also racing was an all encompassing thing and he needs to take “that” time right now and devote it to people that’s important to him. And that he said his health and it’s importance to him, and he wants to minimize any possibilities of future injuries. Carl stated he is a very private person (and as I considered it I realize I know NOTHING about his kids and never see them on TV). He said he considered 2017 being his final year; but couldn’t come up with a good reason why “NOW” wasn’t a good time. He stated that no one defining thing that led him to this decision. Timing for this is now. When he was asked as to “what comes next” he readily admitted “there’s no life raft – I’m not jumping from one place to another and doing

something else. To be honest I don’t have it all figured out yet”. At times it became very personal for Edwards and he almost broke down in tears. So as it appears at this time Edwards final Cup start was at Homestead Miami Speedway. He started 10th with a chance at winning the Cup Championship once again. He had issues and got caught up in a multi-car accident on lap 257; but nine laps from the end. Also caught up in the accident was Joey Logano, Martin Truex, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, and Chase Elliott among others; ending his chances winning the Championship. For his NASCAR career Edwards ran in 60 Truck series races winning on six occasions; Drove 245 Xfinity races with 38 wins and in the Cup series raced 445 races collecting 28 wins; including the 2015 Coke 600 and 2015 Southern 500 and finished second in the points in 2008 and 2011. He won the NASCAR All Star race in 2011.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

CARL MICHAEL EDWARDS - 08/15/1979