Edwards Now Smack in Middle

Among the annual rites before the Daytona 500 is media day, when the drivers field reporters’ questions. Carl Edwards remembers feeling a bit lonely at last year’s media day.

Few bothered interviewing the young driver from Missouri who was just starting his first full year in the Nextel Cup series.

But this year, the swarm of reporters hung on his every word.

“It’s just a little different this time,” Edwards said wryly as the crowd closed in.

That’s because Edwards is now one of the fastest-rising stars in NASCAR, behind him a banner year that propelled him to a third-place finish in the championship battle.

Edwards, 26, surprised Cup regulars by winning four races in 2005. He finished in the top five in nine others and earned his first pole position at California Speedway in September.

It wasn’t just his driving that drew everyone’s attention. Edwards has a marquee smile, an abundance of confidence and an aw-shucks manner that appears to make him comfortable with his newfound fame.

He also has a signature postscript when he wins that the fans love -- he does a back flip from the window of his Jack Roush Racing Ford.

Edwards’ surge last year prompted Roush to predict that Edwards would be “the driver of the decade not only for Roush Racing but for all of Nextel Cup racing.”

But now Edwards faces the pressure that comes with high expectations. Everyone is asking if he can continue his winning ways in the 2006 season, which opens with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, especially with greater demands on his time away from the track.

Case in point: Before arriving in Daytona Beach, Edwards made a quick trip to Southern California to shoot a Ford commercial at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

During a break in the filming, Edwards said he could handle the mounting strain of his popularity.

“I feel like there’s nobody in the world who can put any more pressure on me than I put on myself,” he said.

Compared with the challenge of just breaking into the top echelon of stock car racing, the pressure to meet everyone’s expectations -- including those of the main sponsor of his No. 99 car, Office Depot Inc. -- pales by comparison, he said.

“The hardest part of my career, and the most daunting task, was eight years ago when I was just trying to get to this position,” he said.

Edwards grew up in Columbia, Mo., and as a youngster traveled with his dad, Mike, who won more than 200 races in modified stock cars on Midwestern tracks. His dad also is a cousin of NASCAR driver Ken Schrader.

While watching a race in Pevely, Mo., when he was 13, Carl said he knew he wanted to drive too.

“I was sitting there in the bleachers,” he recalled. “It all became possible right then.”

Edwards worked his way up in racing, but he also took general-studies courses at the University of Missouri. Later, to make ends meet, he worked as a substitute school teacher in Columbia, which “left plenty of time to go race,” he said.

Still, it was a struggle. So in the late 1990s, Edwards bought ads in racing journals and handed out business cards at racetracks, announcing that he was a driver for hire -- unorthodox steps that raised eyebrows in racing circles.

But Roush, one of the most prominent owners in NASCAR, saw one of the ads and hired Edwards to drive in NASCAR’s Craftsman truck series. Then in mid-2004, Roush moved Edwards up to his Nextel Cup team.

Edwards now lives in Mooresville, N.C., has a girlfriend and is known for his aggressiveness on big tracks such as the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Some racing analysts have said he needs more experience on NASCAR’s shorter tracks and road courses if he hopes to win the Nextel Cup.

But Edwards has confounded observers before, and he said, “I’m going to be aware of every point this year,” starting today. He’ll drive in one of the two 150-mile qualifying races for Sunday’s Daytona 500, hoping to nail down a starting spot near the front.

And from there?

“It’s my second Daytona 500 and the biggest thing I’m going to focus on ... is just being there [near the lead] with like three laps to go. That’s my mission, just to be there.”

Edwards also is very much aware of the spotlight on him.

“The biggest thing I’m trying to make sure of is that none of that [attention] detracts from my racing,” he said. “The bottom line is, I have to perform on the racetrack.”