Why Is Carl Edwards Leaving Nascar?
Edwards has always been a gracious, glib, guarded star. He has always been hard to read – Tony Stewart once referred to Edwards as “the Eddie Haskell of NASCAR.”
Carl Edwards will leave Joe Gibbs Racing effective immediately without regrets and while he's still healthy, he announced Wednesday.?
Edwards said he has no plans to race again, but he added that he wouldn't use the word "retirement." He said the timing was right to leave now -- that he is satisfied with his career and the schedule is grueling.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s battle with concussions did affect Edwards' decision, he said. [Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/carl-edwards-leaving-nascar-health-regrets/story?id=44707336 ]
Why Is Carl Edwards Leaving Nascar?
Carl Edwards made it official Wednesday morning. He is back-flipping into the next phase of his life, leaving NASCAR and untold millions behind to land ... well... where exactly?
Edwards, 37, was unclear about that. He mentioned television broadcasting as a possibility. He didn’t discount running for political office. He talked fondly about flying planes and farming (he and his family live on a huge spread in Missouri). He also said he wasn’t going to use the “R” word – and indeed he never said he was actually retiring Wednesday, only that he was stepping away from full-time Cup racing.
Edwards said he had three reasons for his departure: He said he was “personally satisfied” with his career, that the time commitment of Cup racing was incredibly grueling and that he was “100 percent healthy” and wanted to stay that way.
“I’m a sharp guy,” Edwards said, “and I want to be a sharp guy in 30 years.”
He is a sharp guy, for sure. Edwards is also a shiny surface, one that reflects all light and is very hard to penetrate. He is affable, handsome and very self-aware in front of microphones. He knows reporters’ names and can talk around things he doesn’t want to talk about (his wife, his children, his exact future plans) with the expertness of a seasoned politician.
Edwards has always been a gracious, glib, guarded star. He has always been hard to read – Tony Stewart once referred to Edwards as “the Eddie Haskell of NASCAR.”
Edwards drove a race car fluently enough to win 28 Cup races, celebrating most with a post-race backflip off the top of his car. He said all that was plenty enough for him.
Said Edwards: “Now you’re thinking, ‘Well, you don’t have a championship.’... But I don’t race for trophies.”
Read more from source : http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/scott-fowler/article125852744.html#storylink=cpy
Why Is Carl Edwards Leaving Nascar?
The first are trolls and creeps and haters who hide behind anonymous screen names to spew venom. They can be huge pains, but it comes with the territory and I’ve long ago learned to not take things personally, as well as to use the “block” function as needed.
The other problem is some people overanalyze things, often suggesting sinister motives as being behind random events.
I had to chuckle at some of the comments I read after FOXSports.com broke the story that Carl Edwards is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing. Some said it was a nefarious move by the sponsor to promote Daniel Suarez, while others thought it might be a power play by Edwards to either go join a different team or land a fatter contract at JGR.
Both those notions are wrong. Almost comically so, in fact.
Truth be told, in his press conference Wednesday morning at Joe Gibbs Racing, Edwards at times admitted his departure from the team wouldn’t make sense to everyone, especially those outside the sport. And that’s one reason some people come up with wild ideas about why this happened when and why it did.
But when I got back to the office Wednesday, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Everyone, at some point in their lives, has a moment when they say to themselves, “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
They could be talking about being in a job, a marriage, a relationship, attending college, being a member of a church or serving in an organization. But one day, it happens: “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
Now, when “this” is earning millions of dollars and national fame racing stock cars, it’s hard to make people understand why you’d walk away from that. Most people would cut off their left nut to have the money and glory that comes with being a front-line NASCAR racer.
But then again — and this is no offense to anyone out there — if you never did the job, it’s almost impossible to understand how much being a race-car driver consumes every minute of your life.
“This is an all‑encompassing thing,” Edwards said of being a NASCAR racer. “You guys (the media), we do this, and it’s full‑time. And not just the physical time, but I wake up in the morning thinking about racing. I think about it all day. I go to bed thinking about it. And I have dreams about racing. And that’s just how it is. I’ve been doing that for 20 years, and I need to take that time right now and devote it to people and things that are important to me, things I’m really passionate about.”
And the more I thought about it, one other thing became obvious: Edwards said he doesn’t know what will come next in his life: aviation, agriculture, politics, broadcasting, some of the above, none of the above.
The fact that Edwards is not leaving with a specific goal or destination in mind further reinforces the notion of, “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
And you know what?
There’s not a damned thing wrong with that, especially after nearly 13 years of racing full-time.
And I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Edwards on a race track.
But whether or not he ever races again, Edwards is leaving the sport on his own terms, at his own time, and with his health intact. [source: http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/simple-truth-carl-edwards-stepping-away-nascar ]
The first are trolls and creeps and haters who hide behind anonymous screen names to spew venom. They can be huge pains, but it comes with the territory and I’ve long ago learned to not take things personally, as well as to use the “block” function as needed.
The other problem is some people overanalyze things, often suggesting sinister motives as being behind random events.
I had to chuckle at some of the comments I read after FOXSports.com broke the story that Carl Edwards is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing. Some said it was a nefarious move by the sponsor to promote Daniel Suarez, while others thought it might be a power play by Edwards to either go join a different team or land a fatter contract at JGR.
Both those notions are wrong. Almost comically so, in fact.
Truth be told, in his press conference Wednesday morning at Joe Gibbs Racing, Edwards at times admitted his departure from the team wouldn’t make sense to everyone, especially those outside the sport. And that’s one reason some people come up with wild ideas about why this happened when and why it did.
But when I got back to the office Wednesday, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Everyone, at some point in their lives, has a moment when they say to themselves, “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
They could be talking about being in a job, a marriage, a relationship, attending college, being a member of a church or serving in an organization. But one day, it happens: “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
Now, when “this” is earning millions of dollars and national fame racing stock cars, it’s hard to make people understand why you’d walk away from that. Most people would cut off their left nut to have the money and glory that comes with being a front-line NASCAR racer.
But then again — and this is no offense to anyone out there — if you never did the job, it’s almost impossible to understand how much being a race-car driver consumes every minute of your life.
“This is an all‑encompassing thing,” Edwards said of being a NASCAR racer. “You guys (the media), we do this, and it’s full‑time. And not just the physical time, but I wake up in the morning thinking about racing. I think about it all day. I go to bed thinking about it. And I have dreams about racing. And that’s just how it is. I’ve been doing that for 20 years, and I need to take that time right now and devote it to people and things that are important to me, things I’m really passionate about.”
And the more I thought about it, one other thing became obvious: Edwards said he doesn’t know what will come next in his life: aviation, agriculture, politics, broadcasting, some of the above, none of the above.
The fact that Edwards is not leaving with a specific goal or destination in mind further reinforces the notion of, “I don’t want to do this anymore. Period.”
And you know what?
There’s not a damned thing wrong with that, especially after nearly 13 years of racing full-time.
And I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Edwards on a race track.
But whether or not he ever races again, Edwards is leaving the sport on his own terms, at his own time, and with his health intact. [source: http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/simple-truth-carl-edwards-stepping-away-nascar ]
0 komentar:
Post a Comment