Catchfence

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After competing the past seven years for Roush Fenway Racing in the Nationwide Series, all while running a full Cup Series schedule, Carl Edwards has decided not to run any Nationwide races in 2012.

“The way we’re approaching this season is, I’m not committing to any races right now,” Edwards said. “And as the season goes, if I decide I’m just a nervous ball of energy on Saturdays and I can’t function without going and racing — because that might be the case — then we’ll work to try to go [Nationwide] racing.”

“Once they said we could not run for the championship, I had already committed and Roush and the sponsors had already committed to running the full season,” Edwards said, “so we stuck with it and we did it. But to me, that was really, in my mind, my last real go at it for the whole season.”

Edwards’ hopes for the Sprint Cup championship ended when Tony Stewart won five of 10 Chase races in 2011. He and Edwards were tied in points following the Ford 400 finale, but Stewart won the championship via the tiebreaker.

Edwards did have the consolation prize of earning the 2011 Nationwide Series owners’ championship for RFR, but says he’s compelled to do more in 2012.

“I’m hoping this lets me focus more on the Cup car,” Edwards said, “lets me be a better Cup racer by maybe having more time during the race weekend to maybe hone the setups in.

- NASCAR.com