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Homestead: Carl Edwards NASCAR Nationwide Post-Race Press Conference - P2
CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE
"It was close. We tried really hard. I drove my heart out there at the end and I wasn’t gonna be able to catch him and pass him the right way, so we got second. My guys worked really hard and the best thing is we had a good race car for the first time at a mile-and-a-half in a long time. We had a car that could win and that was a lot of fun. There was one point in the race when me and Kyle and Joey and Jeff were racing really hard. It was really fun. That was really fun to be a part of, so I had a good time."
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CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAP? "I was closing at a rate that was gonna take about three more laps to really get him, so there in the last corner I just dove her way down in there just to see what that looked like and how close I could get. I couldn’t get by him without probably touching him. I just didn’t have enough time, but I thought it was pretty fun trying to come – we restarted eighth and got to race a little bit and made a good charge."
WHAT ABOUT THE DECISION TO PIT? "It was the decision not to pit the first time that really put us in that position. Mike Kelley thought we were going to be faster, so he decided not to pit. Everybody else pitted, but the good thing we had there was we were the only ones with a set of tires left. So I think if it would have gone green we would have finished third, and as it was we got to put tires on and finished second. If we would have pitted with these guys the first time, I don’t know, we maybe would have been able to win, but I still thought we had a shot at winning. I thought we were gonna win the race on that last restart, but the 18 car was just too fast on those tires."
ON KYLE WINNING THE TITLE. "My championship means a lot to me. At the time I was so caught up in it that I don’t think I valued it as much as I do now, and I have for the last year-and-a-half or so. This race this year, it’s like Jeff says, those guys really earned it. They performed well. They did not back into this. They overcame a lot at the beginning of the year and I hope they enjoy it. It was enjoyable racing with them and the highlight of it for me was all their crew guys thanking me after the race. I thought that was pretty nice of them. They didn’t have to do that. It’s a hard-working group of guys that deserve that championship, that’s for sure."
ON THE KESELOWSKI-HAMLIN INCIDENT. "There are two sides to every story and sometimes things get painted a certain way and you never really know. I can’t take sides on that. I’ve been wrecked by Brad, but we worked that out. I think there really is two sides to everything and you never really know who is in the right."
HOW DO YOU CATCH UP TO JGR? "Just recently I felt like our engines were comparable to theirs because that’s been something that they’ve done really well at. Our guys have been working hard, though, and we’re closing that gap. I was talking with some other drivers even tonight about how well their cars handle. They seem to build really nice stuff and they put a lot of effort into it, and I think it’s the whole package. Initially, for a long time I thought it was just the engine and I’m starting to realize that our cars could be better and that car tonight was a good example of a car that was better. I was more competitive with them and I feel like we’re catching them, but from the drivers to the tire pressures they seem to have things figured out over there."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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