Carl Edwards has been destroying cars right and left at Daytona International Speedway — but not because he’s done anything wrong.
Edwards, who crashed in practice on Wednesday when Ryan Newman’s Chevrolet turned across the nose of Edwards’ Ford, was the victim of another accident in Thursday’s first Budweiser Duel 150-mile qualifying race.
Denny Hamlin’s Toyota got sideways to Edwards’ outside and turned the No. 99 Ford hard into the outside wall, demolishing Edwards’ car. All told, four of Edwards’ Roush Fenway Racing Fusions have fallen victim to crashes at Daytona.
Despite finishing 22nd in the Duel, Edwards is locked into the starting field for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Edwards said of Thursday’s wreck. “It looked like Denny got sideways and wrecked us. That’s the fourth time we’ve wrecked since we’ve been down here. I told (crew chief) Jimmy (Fennig) we wrecked four times, so we have the black flag already, and the race hasn’t even started.
“We’re getting it out of our systems. Fortunately, we have a really good group of guys and have a good backup car, which is our (Unlimited) car. We’ll just go get ’em in the 500. I learned a lot. If we can just have a little luck, I would not count our 99 team out. It will be a good race for us.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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