Photo Credit: Mike Holloway/OnPitRoad.com
Carl Edwards, driver of the No.19 Stanely Toyota, for Joe Gibbs Racing bowled his first game the other day in preparation for the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway this weekend. Now he hopes to turn up a strike of his own variety this weekend. It seems to be a good possibility as Joe Gibbs Racing has had good luck with lower downforce package this year. So far this weekend, Edwards says his car is great and will do well during the race.
“First off, who doesn’t like to go bowling?” Edwards said. “That’s pretty cool. Bowled my best game ever the other day – it was great. The cars are really fast and even with this lower downforce package we’re making a ton of speed, but the best thing and I think it’s going to – I think it bodes well for the race – is that the line is moving. The Goodyear tires are leaving a bunch of rubber on the track. I think the track is going to change a lot through the race. I think we’ll be running – I was already running the second groove in practice. It’s pretty early to be doing that, so I really think it’s going to be good. We haven’t made a long run yet, so I don’t know exactly how much the tires fall off and the times fall off, but our Stanley Toyota is very fast. It’s really good.”
They have ran the new package for eight races thus far and based on what he’s seen, Edwards feels like the teams will push to get everything they can out of it that NASCAR will have to stay ahead of them on that aspect.
“We are always going to push to get every bit we can as race teams and NASCAR is probably going to have to stay ahead of us in that respect, so yeah,” Edwards said. “No matter what rules package we have we’re going to go as fast as we can, get all the downforce we can and we’re going to keep innovating all the time, so yeah that is a factor.”
Edwards likes that NASCAR has made the teams cut the spoilers off and also get rid of the splitters because he feels it makes the cars better.
“As far as I’m concerned, you can cut the spoilers completely off the cars and get rid of the splitters and the less we have the better and I think I really – I cannot thank NASCAR enough for making these changes,” Edwards said. “We went through all those tests last year, tried everything, NASCAR came back with the lower downforce package and I think it’s really paid off. It’s been a lot of fun to drive and even if right now – there’s so many variables that come into play and, yes, we’re running well and our JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Toyotas are fast and everything, but even without that the racing is more fun, so I’m sure NASCAR understands that and I’m sure they’re going to keep working to keep it that way.”
Edwards feels the downforce package has made the cars slower than the last time they raced at Kansas Speedway.
“What are the speeds right now versus what we ran last – with the other package last year – do you know? I don’t know for a fact if we’re faster or slower – or, I’m sorry, I don’t know how much slower we are. I assuming we’re a little slower, but I don’t know to what degree and then the other thing is I haven’t made a long run yet, so I don’t know how much the tires are going to fall off. I think really what I’m seeing right now is that in practice I got to run – I ran all the way up to the second groove, kind of almost two-and-a-half grooves up and it was – the groove was moving and I think that that’s going to be as big of a factor as the downforce because even if you have – you’re running in disturbed air and if you can move over and run in cleaner air, you can make something happen, so hopefully it’s good, but these cars we’re still going very fast and we’re still relying on downforce, so I think it’s just a constant push and I think – but, like I said, I think we’re going the right direction. For me, I’ve had more fun racing this year than I’ve had in a long time and I think the racing has been better.”
When the green flag drops tomorrow Cousin Carl will be trying to get his first win at Kansas, starting from 12th position.
“I was talking about that this morning,” he said. “There is no bigger win – there would be no bigger win for me. This would be as big as the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard 400 for me, so it really means a lot and we’ve got the team to do it right now. I look at this as an opportunity to make that dream come true. Somebody told me Clint (Bowyer) was running the Truck race, so I hadn’t thought of that. I should maybe think about doing more of that. That Truck win here was so spectacular. That’s the only time I’ve ever heard the crowd in the vehicle while the truck was still running and I tell people that story – I pulled down to do the back flip and I thought, ‘Man, there’s something wrong with this engine. Something’s not right,’ and I shut it off and I realized that was the crowd and that really means a lot to me. I feel like I have a lot of support here and I’m sure Clint feels the same way. It’s really cool to race here.”
