CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – “It’s fun to be turning left and right and using the brakes and the curbs and sliding all over the place. It’s fun. I’m glad to be here.”
WHO HAS THE ADVANTAGE AT A TRACK LIKE THIS: DRIVERS WHO ARE USED TO THE CARS BUT NOT ROAD COURSES, OR DRIVERS WHO ARE USED TO ROAD COURSES BUT NOT THESE CARS? “I think that road-course racing is kind of its own talent. People with a lot of experience, like Marcos Ambrose and Juan and those guys and judging from the practice times, it looks like Marcos is the guy right now.”
DOES KNOWING THESE CARS HELP? “Yeah, I think there’s kind of a balance there. I think being used to the race car gives the regular Cup guys a lot of experience to go off just with the car, but road racing is its own thing and I think the guys who have come in and had success – Juan and Robby and Boris and those guys – you can tell that there’s really a lot to being a road racer. You watch a guy like Marcos or Juan, that’s got experience with both now, they’re the guys to beat, I think.”
HAS THE HEAT AFFECTED THE HANDLING OF THE CARS TODAY? “The heat has made the car really slide around. It’s a lot of fun. I hope it’s this hot on Sunday because I think it’s going to be a lot of fun driving. It’s drives like a dirt track, you whip the thing around the race track and not blow the tires off. A lot of work for the crew chiefs, but it doesn’t matter, the fastest car is still not going to feel good.”
SOME OF DRIVERS SAY THEY DRIVE “DEFENSIVELY” ON A ROAD COURSE IN AN EFFORT NOT TO LOSE POINTS. DO YOU THINK THAT WAY? “I want to win a road-course race so badly. To me, to win a road-course race, there’s a lot of pride in that because the driver is a huge factor. So, no, we’re not going defensively – maybe for the first half, but we’re going to win this race.”
HOW’S THIS NEW CAR ON THE ROAD COURSE COMPARED TO THE PAST-GENERATION CAR? “The new car is fine. It’s a little slower, you have to go a little slower through the center of the corners, you have to kind of coax the car in to doing what you want it to do a little bit more, but it’s fun.”
DID YOU SEE THE NO. 28 CALIFORNIA PATROL CAR OUT THERE? “Yeah, I saw the CHP car. That’s pretty cool.”
HOW DID IT LOOK? “Listen, I’ve had couple of run-in – on in particular – with the CHP and they were very, very cool to me, so it’s good to know that they’re out here supporting racing, and bringing awareness to law enforcement, I think, is important. Showing their support for racing is good, and I think people need to remember they’re out here protecting us.”
