2011 Carl Edwards Debriefs with Crew Chief Bob Osborne - Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Now the Official Training Restaurant of Carl Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing 

Milford, Conn., Feb. 8, 2012 – SUBWAY^® restaurant chain, the world’s largest restaurant chain, has expanded its successful partnership with Carl Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing from the primary sponsor of the No. 99 Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for three races in 2011 to six races starting in 2012.  The multi-year partnership also includes four additional races as a major associate sponsor and becoming the Official Training Restaurant of Carl Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing.

“Carl has been a fan of our brand and our sweet onion chicken teriyaki sandwich for a long time,” said Tony Pace, Sr. Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer at SUBWAY^® Franchisee Advertising Fund.  “He and Roush Fenway Racing are great partners and proven winners. We look forward to Carl chasing his goal of a championship in 2012.”

The first race this year for the No. 99 SUBWAY^® Ford will be March 4 in the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500™ at Phoenix International Raceway; returning to the track March 25, at Auto Club Speedway; June 3, Dover International Speedway; July 7, Daytona International Speedway; Sept. 2, Atlanta Motor Speedway; and Oct. 7, at Talladega Superspeedway.

“The SUBWAY^® restaurant brand and their SUBWAY FRESH FIT^® menu provides me with the opportunity to promote my healthy, active lifestyle,” stated Edwards. “SUBWAY^® sandwiches are the best tasting, most healthy food option that I can get on-the-go when I’m traveling,” continued Edwards.

Edwards will again be featured in the SUBWAY^® restaurant advertising campaigns.  The first new on-air ad with Edwards will run during the national television broadcast of the Daytona 500 (Feb. 26 on FOX).

“I am extremely pleased that SUBWAY^® has expanded their relationship with Roush Fenway Racing,” said Jack Roush, co-owner, Roush Fenway Racing. “As a company, we promote a healthy lifestyle with our employees and in particular, our drivers and pit crew members. Having the SUBWAY^® restaurant chain as our Official Training Restaurant is ideal.”     

About SUBWAY® Restaurants

Headquartered in Milford, Connecticut, and with regional offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Brisbane, Miami and Singapore, the SUBWAY® brand was co-founded by Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck in 1965. Their partnership, which continues today, marked the beginning of a remarkable journey – one that has made it possible for thousands of individuals to build and succeed in their own business. In 2011, for the third straight year, Zagat® Fast Food Survey, the SUBWAY® brand was ranked “number one” by consumers in the “Healthy Options,” “Most Popular” and “Top Service” categories for food brands with 5,000 or more locations. For more information about the SUBWAY® chain, visit www.subway.com. Find us on Facebook: Facebook.com/subway. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/subwayfreshbuzz. SUBWAY® is a registered trademark of Doctor’s Associates Inc.

About Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive RoushFenwayOnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenwayand follow on Twitter at @roushfenway.

Source: Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

NASCAR Logo

Jimmie Johnson to Present “The World’s Fastest Award”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2012) – Carl Edwards and Trevor Bayne, known to most sports fans as winners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, could soon add “Dance Machine” and “Gnarliest Newb” to their respective resumes.

Edwards and Bayne have been nominated as part of Cartoon Network’s second annual Hall of Game Awards, airing Monday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. ET. Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and 2011 “Dance Machine” nominee Jimmie Johnson will also present “The World’s Fastest Award” with a special cameo appearance.

The show, hosted by Shaquille O’Neal, is a high-energy, off-the-wall, multi-platform experience that lets viewers vote and honor their favorite sports stars and sports moments of the year.

Edwards and Bayne have been nominated – and deservedly so – to compete in the “Dance Machine” and “Gnarliest Newb” categories. Edwards’ signature victory celebration, a backflip from his car, catapulted him to be a finalist in the “Dance Machine” category. Bayne’s improbable Daytona 500 victory as a 20-year-old in only his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start last season propelled him to compete in what is essentially the “Rookie of the Year” category in this year’s awards.

Fans can vote for Edwards and Bayne on www.hallofgame.com now through Friday, Feb. 17. The site has already received over 64 million votes.

Edwards is gunning for his second straight Hall of Game award after taking home the “In It To Win It” title last year. Other NASCAR nominees from last year’s inaugural show include: Danica Patrick, “She’s Got Game” winner; Kurt and Kyle Busch, “Super Siblings” nominees; and Travis Pastrana, “Alti-tude” nominee.

This year’s Hall of Game features musical performances by Flo Rida and Hot Chelle Rae, and appearances by New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, pro and World Cup soccer goalie Hope Solo and Los Angeles Angels right fielder Torii Hunter.

Be sure to tune in and watch Edwards, Johnson, Bayne and the rest of NASCAR’s stars in the 54th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26 on FOX at 1 p.m. ET.

Carl Edwards (right), driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, stands in the garage area beside his crew chief Bob Osborne during Daytona Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 12 in Daytona Beach, Fla. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

(CONCORD, N.C.– February 3, 2012)

“I’m looking forward to coming to Toronto on Saturday, February 11 to meet Canadian racing fans at the Canadian Motorsports Expo,” said Edwards, who won the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. “I was in kind of a rush the last time I was in Canada, last August. We were doing double-duty that weekend, shuttling back and forth between the Michigan Cup race and the Nationwide race in Montreal. This time, it’ll be nice to chat with the fans in a more relaxed setting.”

“We’re very pleased to announce that Carl Edwards will be our headline celebrity at this year’s Canadian Motorsports Expo,” said the CME’s David Weber. “Heading into this year’s show, virtually all of our exhibitor space has been sold and we’ve gotten a lot of great support from some of the country’s top companies, racing series, tracks, manufacturers and retailers. This year’s CME is going to be the best ever, and we’re extremely excited that Carl Edwards is going to be part of it.”

Carl Edwards is scheduled to appear at the CME from noon until 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 11. During his visit, he will appear on-stage for a moderated Q&A with the audience before taking part in a one-hour autograph session. Watch the CME’s website (www.CanadianMotorsportsExpo.com) for details on Carl Edwards’ appearance, including confirmed times and the autograph session.

ABOUT THE CME: The Canadian Motorsports Expo Powered by Inside Track Motorsport News is a three-day celebration of Canadian racing that runs February 10, 11 & 12, 2012 at the International Centre (6900 Airport Road in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada)). In addition to booths and racing vehicles representing the entire spectrum of Canadian motorsports, the show is loaded with seminars and forums to entertain and inform racers and fans alike. Celebrity drivers will be at the CME to sign autographs and meet the fans. One of the special themes of this year’s CME is the CASCAR Reunion. Please check the show’s website (www.CanadianMotorsportsExpo.com) for news, updates, schedule information and more.

For more information on exhibitors, seminars, conferences, special events and guests, visitwww.canadianmotorsportsexpo.com, call 416-962-7223 or emailinfo@canadianmotorsportsexpo.com. Twitter: @CME_racing. Facebook:www.facebook.com/CME.Toronto

ABOUT ROUSH FENWAY RACING: Roush Fenway Racing is the winningest team in NASCAR history, fielding multiple teams in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series with championship drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions, pioneering its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s first team-focused TV show and its award-winning social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries call John Bauersfeld at 704.720.4621.

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

Carl Edwards - Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images for NASCAR

“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

Carl Edwards - Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

Carl Edwards participated in a NASCAR encouraged pack session to start the afternoon testing at Daytona International Speedway Friday afternoon. Edwards talked about what that was like and what may come from it.

Carl Edwards, No. 60 Fastenal Ford Fusion – WHAT WAS THE BIG PACK LIKE?  “It is about half way to the old pavement, the feel of it. You drive down the corner and my Fastenal Fusion was sliding just a little. I didn’t really have to lift off the throttle. I went looking for John Darby and couldn’t find him and then I came back to the car and he was actually over here so that was nice of him to come by. We talked a little bit about that and I guess there is a lot on the table right now of things they could adjust. I think if the cars were either just a little faster or had a little less grip then we would get to that old Daytona feel where you would get in the corner and have to lift a little bit.  I guess there are a lot of things being discussed with RPM, plate size, rev limiters, down force and all this stuff. That is what testing is for and I am glad NASCAR is trying all this stuff to let us see what may happen.”

WHAT DID YOU SEE OUT OF WATER TEMP THERE? WAS THAT ANYTHING THAT CHANGED OTHER THAN THE TWO CAR TANDEM?  “No, we were real low on water temp. I think until you really get right up against that car in front of you water temp is not a factor. It doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal.”

WE HAVE HAD A CONSENSUS SO FAR THAT TWO CARS AT THIS POINT STILL COULD PROBABLY PULL AWAY AND IN THE LAST FIVE LAPS WE ARE LOOKING AT THAT. DO YOU THINK WE COULD NARROW THAT DOWN SOME WITH SOME MULTI-CARS BEING ABLE TO CHASE DOWN TWO OR WILL IT STILL LEAN THAT WAY?  “Okay, let’s look at this realistically. Two cars, unless there is some major change in physics or car design, are going to be faster. Unless you make it such that you have to slow down for the corner or you limit the RPM. I personally would prefer for them to make the cars drive in a way that you have to lift a little for the corner in that two-car draft. It would separate the cars and keep guys from running off. I don’t know how you are going to take this race, with this restrictor plate, and keep it from being the winner wins by being in a two-car draft. It is very difficult. I don’t envy NASCAR’s position but I think they are doing the right thing going through all these motions and trying to figure this out.”

Source: PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Carl Edwards (right), driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, stands in the garage area beside his crew chief Bob Osborne during Daytona Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 12 in Daytona Beach, Fla. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

An Interview With: CARL EDWARDS

KERRY THARP: Carl Edwards is going to wrap up today’s test day number one. He’s driving the No. 99 Fastenal Ford for Roush-Fenway Racing. Carl, of course, came within a whisker of winning last year’s championship.

Carl, talk about coming here to Daytona, a whole new mindset I’m sure on your part. What would it mean for you to win the Daytona 500?

CARL EDWARDS: Well, it would be huge. That would be an understatement. That is an understatement. Last year we were so close following Trevor across the start-finish line. I learned a lot. I feel like our restrictor plate program is better. I feel that Greg and I have grown together to be able to do well at these races. I mean, it’s the Daytona 500, and I’m very, very excited about it.

You know, the past month or so we’ve been running all over, doing all sorts of different things, and it’s been fun, and there’s been one common thing that I’ve found is everywhere we go people are pumped about this season. I don’t know if you guys are feeling that, too, and noticing that. We were in New York the other day, filming stuff at a bunch of different places, and people were genuinely excited about the season. It’s really, really neat to be a part of this right now.

But I wonder, I’ve been a little bit out of touch. What’s going on? What’s the big news today? Anything happening?

Audio: 2012 NSCS Preseason Thunder at Daytona Press Conference with Driver Carl Edwards

Q. You did so well after the race and in Las Vegas. Was there ever a point that you mourned or your heart was broken or anything like that?

CARL EDWARDS: That cool-down lap after the race was not fun. But I mean, I was open with you guys and told you how I felt about it. I haven’t sat and really — I haven’t thought about it much beyond, hey, what could we have done differently, what did we learn, what could we have done differently, and one of the neatest meetings, we sat there with Robby and Jack and Bob, and Jack brought in each driver and crew chief and said, hey, let’s talk about the previous year and what we’re going to do and do you have any ideas. And right off the bat, Jack’s a competitor, what could we have done different. I’m sitting there thinking, maybe there’s something — and Bob said without hesitation, said, If we ran it over again I’d do the exact same thing. He said, We did the right things and we did the best we could, and if we do that every time, we’ll be fine.

I looked at Bob, and I thought, Man I’m glad you’re my crew chief. That reminded me when I go back in my mind and think of specifically those last few races, I’m personally proud of the way all of us performed. You know, the pit crew at Homestead, they were on their game. They were the best pit crew on pit road that day. If we would have had another caution I feel like we would have beat everybody off of pit road. They were dying for a caution. If the rain would have come, if we would have had four tires. I mean, any — we put ourselves in a position to win, and Tony and those guys just — they just did a better job, gambled more than we did and won. That’s racing.

So I guess your question is did I really mourn it. You know, I truly wish I would have won it, but I mean, I understand what happened and how it happened, and I’m just glad that I’ve got chances. I’m glad I get to race this year and next year and go fight for it again.

Q. You sort of just addressed it about Bob and his good attitude and outlook, but did he really struggle at all? He looked devastated when he didn’t go to Las Vegas.

CARL EDWARDS: Well, he didn’t go to Las Vegas not because he was upset. He was working. After the race I could tell he was upset, just as I was and everybody was. But I mean, that’s it, that’s the — if we weren’t upset about it, if it wasn’t something that made you just want to — or that frustrated you, then you’re probably not in the right sport. But I believe, I’d like to believe that we’re wise enough to not let that get the best of us, to just go out and perform and do the best we can. That’s competition. That’s life. You’ve just got to keep on going and do the best you can.

Honestly I really wish we could talk about this year. I mean, I showed up — let me put it this way: After the whole off-season, we parked the airplane over at the airport, and I felt like I was excited. I’m excited for the season to start. I feel more like true — I feel more true confidence than I’ve had in a long time, I feel that we’re doing well for the right reasons, we’ve got everything lined up, and I don’t think that would be any different if we would have won or lost. This season is going to be what it is, and I feel like we’re going to be good.

Good question. I just — it’s weird.

Q. Kind of a follow-up, you’ve always been someone who is intent on trying to find out what you could do — what you could have done differently or done better. I remember after winning the 500 you talked about going to see Trevor that night and asking if there was anything you could do different. You just said how Bob said — would have done the same exact thing. Is that an acceptable answer for you? Can you accept that answer, that you would have done the same exact thing?

CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, it is. What we didn’t want to do is we didn’t want to give up the championship. We didn’t want to do something and take ourselves out of it. We wanted to put ourselves in the best position we could and force Tony and Darian and those guys to rise to the occasion and to really beat us. We weren’t going to hand it to them, and we didn’t. But they rose to a level that we thought was pretty improbable.

I mean, in my mind, whether it’s right or wrong, I think that if we performed the way we did each year, I think we’d win about eight or nine out of ten championships. So the mission for us is to perform that way, to not run around like idiots and say what did we do wrong, we need to change everything. We need to go out and perform that way.

So yeah, from Bob, that’s an acceptable answer to me. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter to Bob. He’s going to do what he thinks best.

Q. It seems like a lot of years, recently whoever finishes second in the championship one year drops off the map the next. Do you think about that and how do you guard against it?

CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, I think I’m one of the ones that kind of started that deal in 2008 and 2009. We’ve lived that. It’s really painful. I hope that that kind of takes us out of that — keeps us from repeating that statistic. I hope that the experience that we had before in 2009 will keep us from doing it again.

But this sport is tough. Your success last year does not guarantee you anything right now. That’s just the way this sport is. We’ve made the mistake of resting on our laurels and saying we’re good, let’s focus on a couple little things. But you can’t do that, you’ve got to keep looking at every little thing.

Q. Can you talk about today? What happened out there? How do you like the car? How does it feel? Do you think these rules are going to work?

CARL EDWARDS: I didn’t get to run in a two-car draft, so I’m not sure. What did you guys think about it? What did everybody say?

KERRY THARP: We’ll probably find out more tomorrow.

CARL EDWARDS: Maybe we’ll find out more tomorrow. I don’t know what our plan is. I don’t think we’re going to do much of it. I think we’re going to work on our car because we have this opportunity to be out there on single-car runs, work on our Fastenal Ford by itself. And then if we do get to draft, I’ll probably go work with Greg and we’ll get together and kind of go through our standard practice stuff together, and then that’ll be kind of a separate thing from the car.
But Bob wants to get the car stuff done first, which is probably smart, considering the car might not be exactly the same if Greg and I get out there and mess around too much. I think we’ve got a good plan.

Q. As a follow-up, Darby and Pemberton were in here and they’re going to ask everybody to get out there to run a pack. Are you going to accept the invitation tomorrow?

CARL EDWARDS: I might watch that. That would be fun to watch. No, it would be fun to go do. It’s really up to Bob and how that fits into our plan and whether or not he’s comfortable doing it. We’re racers. That would be the most fun thing we could go do. But it could be expensive.

Q. It didn’t sound optional.

CARL EDWARDS: Oh, all right. Which car is Darby going to drive? I’m just kidding. It’ll be fun. I mean, the track is smooth, the cars are safe, and it seems like there’s tons of grip. If we go run like that, we’ll go do it. As a driver you want to go do that. It is truly a matter of whether Jack and Bob will let me go do that.

Q. I’m sure Randy has updated you that you’re due in Charlotte next weekend for the Fan Fest. Has he informed you of that?

CARL EDWARDS: I didn’t know that. Am I due? Am I going to be there?

Q. In all seriousness, NASCAR is trying to rev back up the old Winston Preview.

CARL EDWARDS: I’ll be there for that.

Q. Just your thoughts on having 50 drivers from all the series in one location, the Charlotte Convention Center. I know you’ve got fan obligations tonight, but that should be a pretty cool deal.

CARL EDWARDS: Yeah, I don’t know the entire history of that, but I know fans throughout the years who said they wished that we did that. If that’s what the fans want, then that’s what we need to do, and it’ll be fun. We’ll go have fun with it. There’s some other stuff we’re going to do around that, I can’t remember. We’re going to do the All-Star commercial, pretty neat one that sounds like it’s going to be fun, so that’ll be a fun day, and I look forward to it.

Q. You were talking about that true confidence that you feel more than ever, and that makes sense obviously given the way you ran last year and the way Matt ran last year. It was a good year for Roush. It was a little bit of a tumultuous off-season with Roush having to go from four to three cars in the organization. Does that give you any pause?

CARL EDWARDS: Well, I think it makes all of us realize that we’ve got to just do the best we can all the time, not just on the racetrack but we’ve got to be the best we can with our sponsors and our teams and the fans and do everything we can to make the business of this sport work. I think that you guys have experienced it in this room, we’ve all experienced it. When it really comes down to it, you have to — you can’t take anything for granted. That’s what that’s reminding me of, seeing all the changes that have gone on in this sport over this off-season, it’s reminded me — those changes have reminded me that I’m very fortunate to be in the position I’m in. I need to do the best I can for not just my 99 team but our Roush-Fenway team, for Ford, for the sport in general to try to have these opportunities, for me and for the next guy that’s coming along.

I think all of us realize that, and yeah, it’s sad at any time to see someone lose their job or be laid off. I mean, nobody enjoys that.

Q. (No microphone.)

CARL EDWARDS: No, I don’t think it would — yeah, as far as our performance, we have amazing support from Ford, from the Fenway Sports Group, from all of our sponsors, and most importantly I think from Jack Roush and Robby Reiser. Those guys have made sure that any changes we’ve made have not let us suffer any performance setbacks. Jack and Robby are very smart racers, and they’ve both raced with nothing. They’ve both had to prioritize for a large portion of their careers, and I would say that if it were a game of racing with the least amount of resources, those would be the guys you’d want.

I feel good about that. Robby and I talked about it a little bit. He feels confident, Jack feels confident, and from a resources side, I don’t think we’ve lost anything, engineering, all of our simulation programs, the support from Ford, all of that stuff stayed almost intact, or grown actually. Some of it has grown.

Q. You looked really natural hosting the Kelly show, looked great.

CARL EDWARDS: That’s because they told me you cannot screw it up. They told me the worse you screw it up, the better it’ll be. They said say whatever you want, which was pretty great advice.

Q. Do you want to do more of that, especially in the future, and were there any amusing things that happened that day around the set that we didn’t see on camera?

CARL EDWARDS: Kelly is really funny. When the camera shuts off she’s just the same except for a little more vulgar. She’s really funny. She goes into stand-up comedy mode as soon as the camera shuts off and she grabs the microphone for the crowd, and it’s really funny. I just stood back and laughed with everyone else. That was really fun. I like doing different things like having opportunities to do something that’s a little bit outside my comfort zone, and that was definitely right there. That was a very interesting experience. It is truly the fastest hour of my life. When they said it was done, I would have sworn that it was 15 to 20 minutes that we just spent, and it was an hour. That was pretty interesting.
I would like to do more stuff like that, specifically things I haven’t done, things that are different and fun like that, and challenging. To be honest with you, I’ve never been more nervous about a TV appearance in my life. I had so many people tell me, I mean, tons of people, they’re like, Hey, I’m going to be watching tomorrow. I mean, people that I had no clue watched the show. I’m not going to name any names. But they’re like, We’ll be watching, don’t mess it up. So there was a lot of people.

Q. NASCAR is going with a bigger plate in the morning and they’re closing the grille by one inch on each side and making the pressure release valve 25 from 30. How do you expect that to change the car?

CARL EDWARDS: Why did they say they’re doing that?

Q. I don’t know, it was in the meeting.

CARL EDWARDS: When did they decide that?

Q. (No microphone.)

CARL EDWARDS: So they want the cars to be — they want them to be faster? Hmm. So they close the grille up, they lower the pressure five pounds, and they gave us a bigger plate? This is going to be wild.

At the end of the day, NASCAR walks a fine line of — I believe they do, of making the cars hard enough to drive that they’re not in a giant dangerous pack and that people aren’t super aggressive with them. So they’ve got to make them hard enough to drive that we drive down the corner and we aren’t quite sure what’s going to happen with the car. You know, it slides, and then they don’t want to make it so hard that the race is — one guy runs away from the field and it’s not exciting for the fans, because let’s face it, the fans come to Daytona to see an exciting, crazy race, a pack of cars or two cars teamed up, and that’s what fans — it seems like to me that’s what fans come to see.

In my opinion, one of the neatest races I’ve ever been in as a driver here was one where I guess everybody thought Goodyear got the tire wrong. I thought they got it just right because it was so slippery, you’d drive in the corner and have to lift and slide the car, and it was like driving a big two-and-a-half-mile dirt track. It was a blast. But I guess it was really boring to watch.

I’m all for higher speeds, less grip, make the cars harder to drive. That’s fine with me.

KERRY THARP: Carl, thanks a lot. Appreciate you being in here, and good luck the rest of the week.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Source: NASCAR, Press Release

Carl Edwards is Kelly's co-host on LIVE WITH KELLY - Photo Credit: Disney-ABC Domestic TV/David Russell

CONCORD, N.C. (Jan. 12, 2012) – Carl Edwards made the most of his day in New York City on Tuesday spending time with several major media outlets, including co-hosting “LIVE! with Kelly” alongside Kelly Ripa.

Edwards’ day kicked off early with a visit to “FOX & Friends,” chatting with Brian Kilmeade about the 2011 season and the upcoming Daytona 500.  He also swapped roles with Kilmeade and took a turn interviewing him to prepare for his next stop at “LIVE! with Kelly.” 

On “LIVE! with Kelly” Edwards made his co-hosting debut during a special sports-themed week on the show.  During the show he admitted to watching an episode of “The Bachelor” and his purchase of a new tractor to do some farming on his land in Missouri.  

“It was an honor to co-host the show,” Edwards said.  “Kelly was a lot of fun and the audience was incredible.  Kate Beckinsale, Laura Prepon and Tanya Zuckerbrot were great guests.” 

Then it was off to “Fox Business Network” for another live interview about the 2011 championship battle and what is ahead for 2012.  Edwards also discussed the business of NASCAR and sponsorship. 

Before leaving New York he also did an interview with the “Wall Street Journal,” and collected hits on ESPN.com, Newsday.com, “The New York Times” and “Sports Business Daily.” 

Today he gets back to his normal day job, sitting in the driver’s seat of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford as testing gets underway at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for next month’s Daytona 500. 

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its award winning marketing platform RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenwayand follow on Twitter at @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries call John Bauersfeld at704.720.4621.

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)

Lucas, who has spent the past two seasons as the race engineer for the No. 18 team, replaces Jason Ratcliff, who was named crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team last month. Lucas’ background in racing is deep with extensive experience as an engineer and mechanic in NASCAR as well as CART and IndyCar racing.

“Matt has done a great job for us the past two years and he will provide the team continuity going into next season,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “He has a close relationship with Jason (Ratcliff) that will also be beneficial as he fills that role. We are fortunate to have people here at JGR like Matt that allow us the opportunity to promote from within. That team has been one of the best in the Nationwide Series over the past several years and we look forward to Matt continuing to build upon that success.”

Prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of the 2010 season as race engineer for the No. 18 Nationwide Series team, Lucas spent four seasons with Roush Fenway Racing as a Nationwide Series engineer. As a member of the No. 60 team from 2006-2008, he would help lead Carl Edwards to the 2007 Nationwide Series Championship. In 2009 he worked with the No. 98 car driven by Paul Menard.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead our No. 18 team going into next season,” said Lucas. “We have a tremendous group of guys on this team and throughout our Nationwide shop and we plan to continue to deliver the type of success our sponsors expect and deserve.”

Lucas spent five seasons as a race engineer with Penske Racing prior to joining Roush Fenway. In addition, he has extensive experience in racing as a mechanic having worked with A.J. Foyt Racing in IndyCar and Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers in CART.

He is a graduate of Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio and currently lives in Mooresville, N.C.

About Joe Gibbs Racing:

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, three NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program. Its driver lineup consists of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series, while Brian Scott joins those three in the Nationwide Series along with Michael McDowell and Mark Martin. JGR also boasts Darrell Wallace, Jr. in its driver development program and he will compete in the 2012 K&N Pro Series East and the Nationwide Series. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championships, and three Nationwide Series owner’s championship along with more than 150 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release

Carl Edwards - Photo Credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for NASCAR

CONCORD, N.C. (Jan. 3, 2012) – Carl Edwards will take a turn co-hosting the syndicated morning program “LIVE! with Kelly” on Tuesday, January 10, during a special themed week of sports co-hosts with Kelly Ripa.

Edwards was selected along with Reggie Bush, Boomer Esiason, Jesse Palmer and Apolo Anton Ohno. Actress Kate Beckinsale will be a guest on the show when Edwards co-hosts with Ripa.

Edwards was a guest on the popular show last June after his win in the Sprint All-Star race, and has appeared in the past with the NASCAR Chase contenders. This will be his first stint as co-host. 

“LIVE! with Kelly” is distributed in national syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Produced by WABC-TV in New York and executive produced by Michael Gelman, “LIVE! with Kelly” airs in more than 200 markets across the U.S.

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway.

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

Host Jamie Little talks with six of the 12 drivers during NASCAR After the Lap at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Dec. 1, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. - Photo Credit:Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

Top-12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Drivers Hold Nothing Back

LAS VEGAS (Dec. 1, 2011) – The 2011 top-12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series^TM drivers held nothing back today at the third annual, fan-favorite NASCAR After The Lap held at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas and sponsored by Coca-Cola and Ford. ESPN pit road reporter Jamie Little hosted the event along with co-host Miss Sprint Cup Monica Palumbo.

A list of the top-10 unfiltered, driver “tell-all” comments are outlined below. 

Top-10 List

Number 1

• · Ryan Newman was asked if he purchased his boss (2011 Champion Tony Stewart) anything special after winning the championship.
• · “No!”
• · Jamie Little followed with “Ryan, you told me earlier there was a waxing appointment but that no appointment was long enough to cover Tony’s needs.”

Number 2

• · Question for Kyle Busch: “Kyle, we hear your wife cooked her first Thanksgiving this year…How did she do?”
• · Response: “It was good. That’s what she said.”

Number 3

• · Comment from host Little: “There are a lot of single women in Vegas.”
• · Response from Stewart: “Why do you think I’m just happy to be here?”

Number 4

After comments about brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch dressing alike and being confused for each other, Kurt Busch responded:

• · “When the fine comes in the mail, they know how to spell our name right.”

Number 5

• · Question: What if Delana Harvick (wife of Kevin Harvick) showed up (to the race) without a fire suit?
• · Special guest and Blue Comedy Tour comedian Bill Engvall responded: “We talking no suit at all? Cus, that would be awesome.”
• · Harvick followed with “If she walked out without a fire suit and I missed the race, you’d know why.”
• · “At least for the first 10 laps…” said Matt Kenseth.

Number 6

• · Earnhardt Jr. was asked about his future wife…
• · “Yea, she’s real,” said Earnhardt Jr.
• · “Not real’s a blow-up doll.” Engvall
• · Little asked if she was a blonde.
• · “She’s like Snooki … he hasn’t noticed,” said Gordon. Earlier in the show, Stewart had commented that “For the first three episodes, I didn’t even know Snooki had a head.”

Number 7

• · Stewart was positioned in a chair next to Little who was standing nearby. “Why do you think she sat me next to her? Always sit the fat kid next to the tall girl.”

Number 8

• · Kurt Busch noted that he was “camera shy. I think the best form of communication is cussing.”

Number 9

• · “I felt uncomfortable today for the first time in a long time because I was changing next to Carl.” Stewart
• · “You’ll always have me beat with that back hair.” Carl Edwards
• · “Hey, I’m out here working hard to represent all fat kids.” Stewart

Number 10

• · Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Gordon break dancing for fans at NASCAR After The Lap.

- ASPIRE Communications, Press Release 

Tony Stewart, right, jokes around with teammate Ryan Newman during the Newlywed Game at the Fan Festival presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion's Week at the Fremont Street Experience on Nov. 30, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. - Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

Stewart, Teammate Ryan Newman, Winners of Humorous Newlywed Game Parody

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 30, 2011) — Tony Stewart’s on a roll. And that’s a good feeling when you’re in Las Vegas.

Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Ryan Newman won Wednesday’s “This Ain’t the Newlywed Game,” a riff on the television original hosted by Bob Eubanks. Stewart and Newman edged the team of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch by most accurately recalling the estimated attendance of March’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The game had a myriad of humorous moments – some broad, others ribald – and in some cases more resembled a roast of the top 12 finishers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™.

Stewart, who suggested engineering graduate Newman would be a better driver “if he didn’t think all the time,” got in the final zinger to his teammate’s incorrect answer that he would be the driver the champion most likely would bump out of the way on the final lap to win the race.

“I figured you’d pick me,” said a disappointed Newman. Stewart answered, “There you go thinking again.” Stewart thought Newman’s answer would’ve been “Brian Vickers.”

Carl Edwards said Roush Fenway Racing partner Matt Kenseth would be a better driver “if he didn’t qualify in the back.” Kenseth responded, “Are you kidding me? I beat Ryan Newman for poles this year.” Actually, they both won three Coors Light Poles during the 2011 season.

Kenseth set up Eubanks by telling Edwards his most annoying habit was always being late. Eubanks said, “Even late crossing the finish line” in reference to Edwards’ second-place finish to Stewart in the championship deciding race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“This could be the end of my career,” said Eubanks. “I’m not sure I’ll ever do it again but it’s been fun.”

The Newlywed-style event, held on downtown Las Vegas’ historic Fremont Street Experience, drew several thousand fans. Some carried signs welcoming their favorite drivers.

The six teams were comprised of Stewart/Newman, Hamlin/Kyle Busch, Edwards/Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr./Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski/Kurt Busch.

There were other activities as well, as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week rolled into its second day working toward Friday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet at Wynn Las Vegas, a signature event that will feature same day coverage (9 p.m. ET) by SPEED, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and MRN Radio.

Travis Pastrana sat for a featured one-on-one interview during Wednesday’s second and final day of the Motorsports Marketing Forum at Caesars Palace. Pastrana noted his recovery process from a broken ankle, which delayed his NASCAR Nationwide Series career, saying, “I actually became a bigger fan and feel like I learned a lot by watching on television.”

Pastrana said the biggest challenge he faces in 2012 is working with crew chief and crew to make the optimum adjustments. “In Rally, if you want to make up time, you can take chances to jump up further,” he said. “In NASCAR, you really have to not only know what the car is doing, but how to relate that.”

Stewart hosts the popular 5th Annual “Stewie Awards” with co-host Matt Yocum at 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday on the

Matt Kenseth, center, teamed up with Carl Edwards, gestures during the Newlywed Game at the Fan Festival presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion's Week at the Fremont Street Experience on Nov. 30, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. - Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90. The Stewies honor the best, boldest and funniest moments from the NASCAR season.

Thursday is Champion’s Week longest day with the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon, NASCAR Victory Lap and NASCAR After the Lap on the schedule. Details can be found below.

Media members still have the opportunity to vote on the greatest moments during the 2011 NASCAR national series season. Among the nominations are Stewart’s come-from-behind championship run and Trevor Bayne’s surprising and dramatic Daytona 500 victory. Results will be announced beginning early next week. To vote: http://bit.ly/2011topstories.

Thursday, Dec. 1

· NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon: Beginning at 11 a.m. in the Bellagio Ballroom at the Bellagio, this annual industry/media gathering includes the presentation of awards to the Champion Crew Chief (Darian Grubb), Champion Sponsor (Office Depot and Mobil 1), Sunoco Rookie of the Year (Andy Lally) and Most Popular Driver (to be announced). Co-hosted by NASCAR and the National Motor Sports Press Association, fans can attend this exclusive event for the second-consecutive year. Fans can watch the event on NASCAR.COM via this link: http://www.nascar.com/Myers_Brothers_Luncheon.

· NASCAR Victory Lap: Set for 3 p.m., the fan-favorite NASCAR Victory Lap will feature the top 12 drivers parading – with engines growling – down the famed Las Vegas strip in their teams’ respective race cars. NASCAR Victory Lap will feature an authentic pit stop along the route and two burn-out sections for drivers. NASCAR Victory Lap will start in front of Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard and end at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Fans can watch the event on NASCAR.COM via this link: http://www.nascar.com/Victory_Lap.

· Coca-Cola Fan Zone: Fans can get a front-row seat for the conclusion of NASCAR Victory Lap at the Coca-Cola Fan Zone, a free event located at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. Beginning at noon, the Coca-Cola Fan Zone offers interactive displays from The Sprint Experience, Game Show Network, Ford, Coca-Cola, and is a prelude to NASCAR After the Lap.

· NASCAR After the Lap: Starting at 4:30 p.m., NASCAR After The Lap is one of the highlights of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week. Tickets for the third-annual event will be available for purchase at www.NASCARAfterTheLap.com for $20 each, with proceeds benefitting The NASCAR Foundation, a non-profit organization which raises funds that support children’s charities and important causes throughout the nation. Sponsored by Ford Motor Company and Coca-Cola, the event is renowned for its unfiltered, “tell-all” format featuring the 2011 top-12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. Fans can watch the event on NASCAR.COM via this link: http://www.nascar.com/After_The_Lap.

· The 5th Annual Stewie Awards: A champion’s week tradition, 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart and co-host Matt Yocum return to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 5th Annual Stewie Awards, broadcast live on the SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 at 9:30 p.m. ET. The annual highlight of NASCAR Champion’s Week honors the best, boldest and funniest moments from the NASCAR season. Here’s the link for the list of awards: http://www.siriusxm.com/stewieawards.

Jeff Gordon, left, and Jimmie Johnson team up for the Newlywed Game at the Fan Festival presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion's Week at the Fremont Street Experience on Nov. 30, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. - Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony: The big show starts at 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET), crowning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion driver and owner and honoring the other drivers who finished in the top 10 in the final series standings. The star-studded entertainment lineup for the ceremony includes country music icon Reba as host, a performance by Grammy-award winning rocker Kid Rock, as well as performances by two recent additions: up-and-coming country artist Ella Mae Bowen and Broadway sensation Jersey Boys.

• Sixteen-year-old Ella Mae Bowen is an emerging country singer-songwriter who is featured on the new “Footloose” soundtrack with her enthralling remake of “Holding Out For a Hero”. Bowen is originally from Walhalla, South Carolina, and is currently signed with Big Machine Label Group, which is the record label home to country superstars like Reba, Taylor Swift and Martina McBride.

• “Jersey Boys” is the smash-hit musical winner of the 2006 Tony Award on Broadway and Best Musical accolades in both London and Australia. This critically-acclaimed musical tells the tale of four blue-collar boys working their way from the streets of Newark to the top of the charts taking audiences behind the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Jersey Boys, voted #1 show in Las Vegas by the Las Vegas Review Journal, is currently performing at The Palazzo and is coming to Paris Las Vegas in March 2012.

SPEED, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and MRN Radio provide same-day coverage, starting at 9 p.m. ET.

- NASCAR, Press Release

NASCAR Logo Large

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 24 and Austin Dillon, 21, officially were proclaimed champions of the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, respectively, on the Americana Ballroom stage at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.

Both were honored with their first NASCAR national series titles. Each became champion in the season following a rookie-of-the-year performance. Dillon becomes the youngest champion in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ 17-year history. Both champions won twice during the 2011 season.

Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 60 Ford Mustang won the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner Championship, as driver Carl Edwards won eight times. The title is the second in the series for Jack Roush, his previous owner championship coming in 2002. It also marked the first time that the same owner claimed both the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver and owner titles with different teams.

Kevin Harvick Inc. claimed its third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Owner Championship. DeLana Harvick’s No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado posted seven victories with three different drivers in adding to KHI’s owner titles from 2007 and 2009.

Timmy Hill, an 18-year-old Maryland competitor, won NASCAR Nationwide Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors by a single point, tying the series’ closest decision for that award. Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Joey Coulter, 21, won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award, the second time the same organization claimed both championship and rookie laurels.

Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Aric Almirola and Reed Sorenson finished second through fifth in the championship standings and were honored along with Stenhouse in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Johnny Sauter, James Buescher, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Timothy Peters were second through fifth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final points and joined Dillon on stage.

After a fan vote on NASCAR.com, in which more than 215,000 combined votes were cast, each series’ Most Popular Driver was revealed. Sadler and Dillon were chosen by the fans in the NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, respectively. Each was honored for the first time.

SPEED’s Rick Allen and Krista Voda hosted the event, which will air on Dec. 2 from 7-9 p.m. ET on SPEED, prior to the live telecast of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony from Las Vegas.

- NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications Press Release

Ford Racing

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion –

HAS THIS SEASON BEEN A SUCCESS IN YOUR MIND? “Oh, yeah. You can’t reflect on one race and feel bad about this season. We’ve had a great year and I’m looking forward to 2012 and making it better.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENGINE? “It’s just engine trouble. The guys at Roush Yates do a great job and that was probably just pushing the issue. We are here racing for a win and had a fast car and that is our fourth engine failure of the year. You can’t make the Chase, and you can’t go for a championship having problems like that. They do a great job; we just pushed the envelope too much and were being a little aggressive on our car with not a whole lot to lose. We were trying to find a little horsepower and it didn’t work out.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING? “No we were cruising around and made that green flag pit stop and our car had been real free for most of the race. We had a good car I think, no warning, just broke something big going down the back straightaway.”

THE 9 CAR LOOKS LIKE IT DROPPED A CYLINDER. IS THIS SOMETHING CARL NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT? “I don’t think so. I think Carl probably has a real conservative piece. I doubt they will have any issues. Myself, Marcos and even Greg and AJ, not being in the Chase, we have a little R&D going on. We just got the short straw.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “The engine just gave up. It’s really weird the symptoms we’re having because the oil temperature, water temperature, everything is good. We’re not revving them that high, so there must be something weird going on with them. They make great power and we’ve had good engines all year.” WHAT HAPPENED? “It looked like maybe we had a valve problem or something like that. It’s kind of odd because we’re not revving them that high and the temperatures were really, really good. It must be something with the parts because we’ve had three of them break that I know of and that’s really unusual for our engines. Our engines run really good, really reliable and make really good power. I know Doug and all the guys have worked really hard on durability on this FR9, so this is an unusual problem for us.”

DAVID RAGAN SAID THEY WERE TRYING SOME R&D STUFF. WERE YOU? “I don’t know all the specifics. We could have possibly been trying something for next year. It made good power, it just didn’t quite make it far enough.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “It looked like he (Jimmie Johnson) got loose up high and gathered it up, and then it was like he made a hard left like he was gonna come down pit road and I just got in the back of him. We had just got a break there and got back on the lead lap. We were working on the car and even though it wasn’t where we wanted it, we were working hard to try and get it there. We just came up a little short.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW – “I just have to say congratulations to Tony. Those guys earned it. They won half the races in the Chase and he is the champion and did a good job. My guys did a great job. We pushed him to the end and that is all I got. That is as hard as I can drive. I think it is really important to give Tony the credit. Those guys did a good job. That is everything I’ve got. I will go home and work harder for next year and be back and make it just as hard on them, hopefully harder. I am proud of Ford, Aflac and our fans. Thank you for making this fun.”

THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING CHAMPIONSHIP FINISHES THE SPORT HAS EVER SEEN. WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW? “Let me thank my sponsors, Aflac, Ford, Kellogg’s, Subway, Scott’s and all the fans. This night is about Tony Stewart. They beat us fair and square. I gave them everything we’ve got and my guys did a really good job. We came here and sat on the pole and led the most laps and Tony still managed to do a good job with their strategy, come out in front of us and that was all I had at the end. That is as hard as I can drive. I told my wife, ‘If I can’t win this thing, I am going to be the best loser NASCAR has ever had and I am going to try really hard to keep my head up and know we will be just as hard to beat next year and the year after that.’ I just hope everybody is proud of the way we performed and our effort. I appreciate everyone’s support. I wish so bad we had that trophy, it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.”

FOR 40 LAPS YOU WERE LOOKING AT THE TARGET AHEAD OF YOU, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? “It was good because I could see what Tony was doing and I tried all sorts of stuff and that is as hard as I can drive that race car and that is it. I said before this thing started that I would give my best performance and I would be happy with that. I am not quite happy with it, but this is what we’ve got. We will make the most of it. I can tell you one thing, if we are in this position again next year those guys better watch out because that was a lot of work to stay calm and focused and perform the best we can, I learned a ton.”

DID YOU KNOW YOUR FATE DURING THE LAST 20 LAPS? “No, I don’t every quit. I was waiting for his car to run out of fuel coming to the finish line. The only good thing about tonight is that we didn’t make any mistakes, we didn’t mess up and we didn’t beat ourselves. We made Tony and those guys come out and beat us and they did. Congratulations to him. He is the champion and he earned it. I learned a ton, a lot about myself and competition at this level and I will be ready to battle it out just like this every year if I get the opportunity.”

HOW TOUGH IS THIS MOMENT FOR YOU RIGHT NOW? “This moment is pretty tough but not nearly as tough as it could have been if we had a mistake or a problem. We just got out-raced tonight. They did their jobs and came back from adversity and did a good job.”

WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL TONY AT HIS CAR? “I told him I hope we do the same thing next year, it will be fun. That is a good racer. He did a good job. His team did a good job. My guys did really well too. We aren’t going to walk away here feeling like we didn’t give our best performance. We did well and I stand behind all my guys and we will have that same group if I can do anything about it next year and they are going to have to beat us.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “It was a good run for us. I kind of hit the wall early and this Crown Royal team did a great job getting it fixed up and keeping it really competitive. I just wasn’t as good as the top two. The 56 was better at times and I was a little better than him at times, but the 99 and 14 just had us all night. I don’t know what I would change to make it better. We had the balance pretty good. We had great stops. We did all that stuff, we just didn’t have the grip and the speed they had.”

NICE RUN. “It was. It was pretty good. The Crown Royal guys did a great job. They made great adjustments after we kind of got off and hit the wall a little bit early. We had the car pretty good, we just weren’t as good as the 99 and the 14 and the 56 at the end. Those guys were just a little quicker, but, overall, we had a good car and had a good day.”

HOW MUCH FUN WAS IT TO RACE ON THIS TRACK WITH SO MANY OPTIONS? “It’s a fun track. Before the red flag I hit the wall right in front of Martin and they were laughing at me at the red flag, so I was following him there at the end and he was leaving himself a good half-inch to the wall, so I was kind of waiting for him to return the favor so I could get back around him, but he’s really good at that and he just hung it out right next to the fence and I just couldn’t get by him.”

THE 14 AND 99 DOMINATED THE LAST THREE RACES. WHAT’S IT LIKE AS A COMPETITOR TO SEE A TITLE BATTLE GO DOWN LIKE THAT? “It’s crazy. I don’t know how Carl could have put together a better 10 races. They took bad days and turned them into good days and did all they could, but Tony got on that tear and won all those races on different style race tracks. I’m not sure how he made it there at the end on fuel, but he did. I thought it was Carl’s, to be honest with you. He had tires and Tony didn’t and I thought he was gonna run him down, but he just couldn’t quite catch him.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “It’s a little bit sad. We accomplished our goal being top 15 in points, but I want so much more though. It’s one of those things that they deserve a little bit more and I wish I’d given it to them. We’ve got some stuff to work on in the winter. We know that. I love working with Greg because he’s helped me so much. I know I still have a ways to go. We’re making steps and we know the areas we need to work on. I wish I could have won for them, but we’ll get them next year.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We were awesome until the rain came the first time. I guess they saw where our rear-end housing was leaking a little bit, I guess where I got in the wall and knocked a bolt loose, so the first half of the race I was pumped. We were coming and we got to 11th and I thought we were gonna be really good and then that happened and put us back in the field. Then I got in the wall a couple times and then when they crashed on the backstretch we lost our left-front fender when the tire blew, so it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for at the end, but it was really fast and I just wish I could have got a better finish for these guys. I enjoyed working with them all year long and, hopefully, I’ll get to do it again next year because it’s been a great group of people to work with.”

CARL EDWARDS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE OUT THERE TONIGHT AND THE EFFORT – “Well, the effort was all season. We finished the last two races last season very strong and we believed in what we were capable of this year and I think we proved to ourselves that even with adversity and the things we faced throughout the Chase with the bad runs we had and mistakes we made and recovered from that we can compete for these championships. I guess the only thing I am able to take away from this that is really positive is something I think is really important and that is at least we know that we can compete with any of these people. We can compete with a two-time champion, three-time champion now, and winning half the Chase races and still score as many points as them. That is a big deal. I know there are a lot of tests in life and I think the last three or four weeks have been a huge test for me and my team mentally. For us to keep our confidence up and keep our cool and go out and do our jobs, I am really proud of that. That is it. That is my maximal effort right there and Tony beat us. He is a champion and deserves to be the champion. He did a good job and now we will go home and work even harder and if we are faced with the same test next year hopefully we will do even better.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR THOUGHTS THE LAST 10-15 LAPS? “Well, for me I thought back to a lesson I was reminded of at Iowa the second race with Ricky Stenhouse and that was to never, ever give up, period. I was fully prepared for Tony to run out of fuel or have a tire problem or for anything to happen. For a caution to come out and have a restart and that is all I can do. That is my job, to be as prepared as I can be. I didn’t really let myself think about the consequence of what was going on, I just had to drive the hardest I could and I did. I drove to the edge and beyond and that is all I had.”

I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK YOU WILL SPEND THE OFF SEASON THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO COME BACK AND BE EVEN BETTER THAN YOU ARE RIGHT NOW. IS THAT PRETTY ACCURATE? “Yes. Here is the deal. Whether we won tonight or we lost, tomorrow is the start of the next season. I was prepared before this race began to do exactly what I am going to go do and that is to be even better next year and apply what I have learned here. We knew we could come into this thing and we knew that of all the circumstances that could happen this one was the least probable. For us to finish like that, tied, fighting for the win, that is the least probably outcome. I was prepared for anything. I knew that this was a possibility and I was prepared for this. I told myself and my family that the one thing I am going to do is walk back to that motor home win, lose or draw and be a good example for my kids and work hard and go be better next season. We talked about it before the race. Even if we won this thing you get halfway through next season and struggle and it is quickly forgotten. As painful as this is right now I know we are fortunate to go to Daytona and start all over again and go race.”

WHAT DID YOU SAY TO BOB OSBORNE WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR? “I just wanted to make sure that Bob knew I believe he’s the best crew chief here and he will be my crew chief for as long as he wants to be and I will be behind him and his decisions 100 percent. As tough as it is for me, it’s tougher, I think, for those guys – the guys that prepare these cars and determine which things we’re gonna work on through the year and what strategies we’re gonna use. I mean, they make some very, very big decisions that they can’t turn around and change in a heartbeat. As a race car driver, I can make quick decisions out there and I can fix things and make things happen. They make some very, very thought-out decisions and I’m sure their disappointment is as great or great than mine.”

IS THERE ANYTHING COMPARABLE YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH LIKE THIS? “No. I wish I could do this every day. There are lessons that I learned and things I learned about myself, about competition, about failure, about success – things that I could not have learned any other way. If there wasn’t any pressure, there wouldn’t be any diamonds. That’s what my trainer says. We dealt with a lot of pressure and I feel very proud of the way our team and myself and everyone has handled everything through this, and I feel we made it all the way through and although we didn’t come out with the outcome that we wanted, that we are better because of it. I’m not trying to be philosophical or anything, I’m truly telling you that if I’m in this position next year, I’m gonna be better at it. I’ll be better, so that’s cool. That’s something you don’t get every day is a lesson like this.”

WERE YOU PREPARED FOR THIS AND HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH TONY’S TRASH TALKING? “It’s easy. I talked to you guys one time and I said Kipling’s poem, I can’t remember the title of it, but when he says ‘you have to meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,’ and that’s the truth. There’s nothing saying that this loss here tonight won’t spur a chain of events that could lead to some serious success in the future and you guys are looking at someone who is not gonna miss out on that. I’m very aware that time is a funny thing. You can’t go back and change anything, but you can sure as hell change what’s gonna happen, and I will be better and I will do a good job. And, yes, to answer your question, I was prepared for this. I thought a lot about this. Like I said earlier, I feel like personally I passed the test. I didn’t fall into the trap of the trash-talking. I didn’t change the person that I am to go compete at my highest level. I felt like I did it my way and I’m proud of that.”

THE LAST THREE WEEKS YOU AND TONY HAVE GONE HEAD-TO-HEAD. IS IT NOT SURPRISING IT ENDED THIS WAY? “Like I said earlier, I think it’s been a true test. It’s been a battle. As best I can, if I step back away from this and I look at it and I say, ‘OK, here are two guys – one of which has a lot more experience in these situations than the other, won half of the races in the Chase and the other guy stood his ground and did a darn good job of forcing these guys to perform their best.’ I’m proud of that and I think what you just said, the fact that it was that way, that it just turned into this man-to-man battle, that was very interesting. That was something you don’t see in this sport. It shouldn’t happen. I believe it only happened because subconsciously everybody on these teams just raised their level of performance and, to be honest with you, I was very, very impressed with Tony. I think that for all the talk and all the chest-pounding he did, I could see that he was nervous about this too. They had to perform at a very high level and I honestly thought there was a good chance tonight of them making a mistake, of him over-driving, trying too hard, and they showed a lot of mental toughness to be able to watch us go lead the first half of this race essentially and not panic and not make mistakes. I thought they did a really good job.”

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE FACT IT ENDED IN A TIE? “I’d compete with him in just about anything else to break that tie if we could set up something. That’s pretty amazing. I’m telling you guys, I’m not just saying this because I didn’t win the thing, but I think we could run this race 10 times and it’s a 50-50 deal. A little different pit stop, a little different restart here, 10 pounds of spring somewhere in the car and this race could have been a lot different – not a lot different, but the roles could have been reversed. I think it’s just amazing. I’m sure there will be people who will say this is fake, that this was set up, because it’s just so unbelievable. It’s like a movie.”

WHERE WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND TONY, AND YOU SEEM TO BE PUTTING ON A GOOD FACE. IS THIS HOW YOU FEEL? “I’m telling you, guys, this is how I feel. This is me. I’m not b.s.’ing you. This is me. I’m not gonna go rip the door off my motorhome and freak out or anything. I’m gonna go hang out with my family and we’ll go to the beach tomorrow and go celebrate Ricky’s championship. I think it’s important to look back and to come up and look at things you could do differently to really analyze everything and to see where you did things wrong and where you did things right. My true feeling right now, my gut feeling in my heart, is that I’m obviously disappointed we didn’t win. That would have been a spectacular result, but I’m very proud. Some of the best races I’ve run in my life were this Chase. Kansas was unbelievable. Martinsville, I’ve never used my head as much as I did at Martinsville. I’ve never been able to put down my frustration like I did at Dover. If I look back on this Chase with some of the things we salvaged, I mean, we shouldn’t be tied, we should be a lot farther behind. I’m proud of my guys and proud of every one. There’s not one thing where I say, ‘Man, I wish I’d have done this or I wish I’d have done that.’ This whole season has gone very well. I’m truly proud of this season, but it’s over and we didn’t win it and they did. It’s not like the squeaked by. They came with a vengeance and they did their jobs.”

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOUR OFF-SEASON? “What we now have to focus on, we have to be very careful of is not being frustrated and not letting this disappointment tonight affect us for next season. That’s something you’ve got to do as a competitor, especially at this level, you have to realize that the past is history, it’s done, we have to go be the best we can and, truly, we’ve never run any better than this and there’s no reason we shouldn’t start the next season just as tough or tougher. I think that’s something we’ll talk about, hopefully, really soon after everyone relaxes and gets done with Thanksgiving. We’ll decide how we’re gonna be the best we can next year and build off of this and not let any of this disappointment bring us down. We have to make sure we’re just as tough next year.”

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE RAIN CAME AND YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT FUEL MILEAGE WITH 50-60 TO GO? “What they did was they stayed out. I think they almost ran out of fuel. They came down, pitted. They did a really good job of staying on the lead lap. I’m sorry, I’m mistaken, it’s not hard to do because we pitted, too, so it ended up working out fine for them. But they pitted for four tires, the rain came, caution came out, and we only had a couple laps on our tires, so we came in and we were kind of stuck in a box where if we took four, we were gonna lose a bunch of track position to him, and then if it rains we lose the championship if they say the race is over. So we took two tires while we were cruising around under caution we still had the points lead, so if the rain came really hard and they for some reason shortened the race, we’d have won it that way. That’s the box we were in, so we restarted and as it turns out the guys that took four tires didn’t move forward a bunch, so, looking back, I don’t know if we’d have taken four tires if that would have made the difference or not, but it doesn’t appear so. I think if we had it to do over again, we’d probably do the same thing, we would hope that that rain didn’t come and then we would get another caution.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED HE STAYED OUT SO LONG? “I was and I was trying to figure out what he was doing, but they were just gonna try to make it on that one stop and then save fuel, which is pretty risky, I thought. I really thought for a second, ‘We’ve got ‘em. They’re on the ropes here and they’re trying something that maybe they shouldn’t.’ The Gods were shining down on them. It worked out and it just worked out perfectly, and then they were able to hold us off at the end. I’m telling you, the best minds up there looking at all the possibilities and it both teams did something that they thought was best and it was darn near identical. It just wasn’t much different.”

WERE YOU NERVOUS ABOUT YOUR ENGINE AT ALL AND WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE RAIN DELAY? “I went back to the motorhome and had some popcorn and hung out with the family and that was pretty fun. I wasn’t worried about the engines because I saw Doug’s interview on TV. He said that the 6 was a different engine, so I’m sure they were trying some stuff and if there was a problem, Doug would have told us, ‘Hey, you’ve got to take it easy on the engine,’ but we didn’t have any trick engine stuff or anything that I was aware of – nobody told me anything about it, so I wasn’t too worried.”

TONY CAME FROM THE BACK TWICE. HOW MINDBOGGLING IS THAT? “They did a good job. I think that’s why the fans saw such a good race is because this track allows you to do that. If you’ve got a fast car and you do your job and you drive hard, you can pass people here. The fans got to see that and that was just a good job. They did a really good job of recovering from that stuff.”

YOU HAD A 4.9 AVERAGE IN THIS CHASE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT BECAUSE THAT WOULD HAVE WON EVERY OTHER CHASE? “We performed very well. I feel like over the whole season we performed really well. I don’t know if anyone scored more points in the whole season than we did, I’m not sure about that, but there’s a lot of pride in that. We did that in 2008 and I think we did that now. We just performed the best we can. Every week we put out the best effort we can and we were one point shy. That’s just the way it is.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RACE? “It’s neat. It’s neat to be a part of something like that. It’s not neat to lose, but, like I said earlier, that’s a position – I can’t think of another thing I could go do that would capture my attention and my effort, my focus and all of that like this has, so it’s neat to be a part of something like that. I think it’s good to be a part of things like this and I think, in the end, it’ll just make me a better race and a better person to deal with stuff like this. It’s amazing.”

HOW DO YOU THINK BOB WILL HANDLE THIS? “I think Bob will handle it well. Bob is a very, very mentally tough person – very tough. He’s hard on himself. He’ll figure out things that he can do better, but that’s one of the neat things about Bob, he just keeps his head down and works. I think this will be good. We’ll come up with things we can do to be better, but, really, we rose our level of performance. We rose to the occasion, and I truly don’t think we could have done much better in this Chase with, like I said, the circumstances we had and the way things went. I was very proud of every point we gathered through the whole thing.

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Brad Keselowski gets ready to celebrate after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series season-ending Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 19. - Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

Keselowski began the 200-lap race from the pole position after posting a lap of 32.208 seconds, or 167.660 miles per hour, during the Saturday afternoon qualifying session. As the race began, Keselowski radioed that the car was handling very tight in the center of the HMS corners, yet he was still able to race out to a one-and-a-half second lead before the NASCAR-mandated competition caution at lap 35. Crew chief Todd Gordon called for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment on the team’s first pit stop before Keselowski restarted the race in the lead at lap 39.

Just after the restart, Keselowski moved to the top of the track in an effort to keep the No. 60 car of Carl Edwards at bay. While Edwards was able to make his way around the Discount Tire machine, Keselowski kept his car at the front of the field during the ensuing green-flag run. After visiting pit road under the green flag at lap 92, Keselowski was caught one lap down to the race leaders as the caution flag flew prior to the pit stops cycling through. Keselowski, however, was able to earn the “Lucky Dog” award to get back to lead-lap racing. He then proceeded to take advantage of the opportunity.

Following the pit stop, which included a left side wedge adjustment, Keselowski radioed that his car was running great from the center to the exit of the corners, but it still needed some help on corner entry. He was able to race his way back inside the top five by clicking off consistent lap times and showing determination to finish off the NNS season with a solid result. As the race entered its final 50-lap segment, Keselowski began turning the fastest laps on the track as he moved into the second position.

At lap 181, following a lap 180 restart, Keselowski reclaimed his spot at the front of the field. Racing in an all-NNS champions group at the front of the field, Keselowski was able to hold off Stenhouse Jr., and Edwards over the final laps to secure the victory.

Penske Racing teammate, Sam Hornish Jr., finished seventh in the Ford 300 on Saturday evening.

Following Saturday’s result, Keselowski and the No. 22 team ended the season ranked fifth in the Nationwide Series owner point standings.

“You couldn’t ask for a better way to end the season,” said Keselowski. “Not being able to win the championship, it’s good to be able to finish on a high note, winning the pole and the race today at Homestead. It’s a great exclamation point to the season for the whole Discount Tire Dodge team.”

Brad Keselowski Ford 300 Race Statistics

Start: 1

Finish: 1

Laps: 200 / 200

Laps Led: 4 times for 66 laps

Status: Running

Owner Points Position: 5

- Penske Racing Press Release

No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry (Joey Logano) - Photo Credit: Chris Graythen / Getty Images for NASCAR

The Race Recap: Logano and the GameStop team got limited practice Friday due to rain but we’re still able to qualify ninth Saturday afternoon in the Gamestop/PDP/Afterglow Toyota. When the green flag flew on the final NASCAR Nationwide Series event of the season, Logano began a slow and steady charge to the front, picking off cars one at a time despite multiple early cautions, settling into a nice rhythm riding around sixth place. Following the first round of pit stops it quickly became apparent that Logano’s No. 20 Toyota was too loose and the team would have to work on the handling, especially the few laps coming after restarts.

As the car continued to free up, Logano and Crew Chief Adam Stevens started making a plan on how to tighten the car up without affecting Logano’s middle. Logano hit pit road under green just prior to halfway for his second stop when Stevens noticed a car spinning on the front stretch. A great pit call by Stevens had Logano continue on through the pits without stopping, finding him one of just 10 cars still on the lead lap. When he came back in to pit under caution Stevens called for “wholesale” changes including adding a spring rubber and making a shock adjustment among other changes.

For the remainder of the event, Logano continued to struggle on restarts, often losing several spots before the No. 20 Toyota came around. Logano found himself seventh late in the going and catching fifth and sixth, but several late-race cautions played against the GameStop team. Logano spent the remainder of the event just trying to hold on, eventually coming home 10th as the checkers flew to end the 200-lap event and the 2011 Nationwide Series season.

Joey Logano - Photo Credit: John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR

The guys up front have clean air and you are stuck in dirty air and by the time the car comes around, you are already a few seconds behind and that’s tough to make up even when you are faster. I felt like we were on par with those front guys 10 or 15 laps into the run, but with all of the restarts that we had tonight, it just bit us. We fell back and fell back and just couldn’t make up the ground. I’m happy we were able to finish 10th, but that isn’t where we wanted to be or where we should be.

“All in all, it was a pretty good season. There were a few races that I feel like we really should have won and left something on the table. We were able to win at Daytona which was huge for me and for the team. It still stands as probably the biggest win of my career. And we were in contention for a lot of races. Two races that I’ll think about for sure was the first Dover race where we got together with Carl (Edwards) coming to the white flag while racing for the lead and ended up wrecked on the front stretch; and the Bristol night race, where we ran Kyle (Busch) down late in the race from a couple of seconds back and had that photo finish for the win. It was a blast to get to work with Adam (Stevens) all season long and watch him and this No. 20 team mature.

All but one of those guys was new to the team this year, so it was a growing year for all of us. It was also a lot of fun to work with Jason (Ratcliff) and the No. 18 guys for a couple of races. The more you work with people, the more you can take away from it all. And of course, it was great to work with GameStop again. They are just an awesome sponsor and they’ve been there from the start of my Nationwide Series career. You don’t see that very often these days, so to have a sponsor there that keeps coming back and that has such a great relationship with a driver and team is pretty cool. I look forward to working with them well into the future and seeing more and more of their cool paint schemes. Congrats to Ricky Stenhouse for winning the Nationwide Series Championship. It’s been cool to get to know him a little more this year and he’s well deserving of the title, especially after the year he had last year. All-in-all, it was a good year and hopefully next year will be even better.”

- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release