Championship contender Carl Edwards, as have his other 3 contenders, has seemingly had an easy week leading up to Sunday’s championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The four drivers met with media Thursday in Miami Beach and there was plenty of light hearted banter and chuckles.
Behind the scenes however, Edwards has had a bit of a stressful situation going on. Sprint Cup drivers live at the track in luxurious motor homes each week. The RVs serve as the drivers’ home away from home. However the normal RV for Edwards was involved in a minor crash near Tallahassee Florida in route to Homestead. That left Edwards not only without a place to stay, but without clothes beyond his firesuits and what he had carried in luggage.
The rental RV sent to replace the original one, broke down Thursday, and another one was ordered. That however would not arrive until Friday.
With sponsor event scheduled Thursday night aboard a yacht, Edwards was left with only his firesuits and t-shirts and shorts.
That meant Edwards needed to go shopping.
“It was awesome,” Edwards said after qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “So (we) drive up, and I’m like wearing this shorts — my standard Carl outfit, like shorts, dumb shirt, black shoes. I run in there, and Brenda helped me, and I said, man I’m panicked, I’ve got to be on a yacht in like 15 minutes, I need something nice to wear.
“So while I’m trying everything on, shirts, pants, Randy (PR person Randy Fuller) is doing — Randy’s deal is he’s standing over there looking at his watch, ‘yeah, whatever, that’s fine, that looks great’. Guy walks up and said, sir, can we help you, and Randy said, ‘no, I’m with him’. The guy said ‘all riiigghhht’,” Edwards said giving Fuller, who was sitting on the far side of the media center a thumbs, up as Edwards, Fuller and the rest of the media burst out in laughter.
“So anyway, I was dressed well for the boat,” Edwards said. “Randy was like, I’m not sure what just happened there. So it was pretty exciting…yeah, that really happened.
“So we didn’t get my motor home back,” he added. “Man, I’m killing the resale value right now if I tell you how bad it is, but it blew a tire. I have a rental motor home, which is the second one. They got a rental and it didn’t work, so they had to take it back, so I’m on the third motor home this week.”
That third motor home arrived at Homestead-Miami Speedway, safely, Friday afternoon.
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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