“I thought we had it”: When Carl Edwards’ block on Joey Logano cost him a chance on his maiden NASCAR Cup title at Homestead
Former Joe Gibbs Racing driver and NASCAR legend Carl Edwards' maneuver in the last race of his career cost him his maiden championship title. While Edwards achieved great success throughout his 13-year career and won many races, he never took the championship trophy home. Edwards did get a chance, though, but he couldn't grab it.
NASCAR's X page recently shared a throwback clip from the Ford EcoBoost 400 race held on November 20, 2016, at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The clip displayed the former NASCAR Cup Series driver's move, trying to block Joey Logano from taking the lead. Edwards had a lead of 47 laps before he got involved in an accident, costing him his first championship trophy.
During a restart with just ten laps remaining, the #19 driver was leading the pack, with Logano in third place. As the #22 driver tried to overtake Edwards from the inside, the latter blocked him but was unsuccessful. This led to Edwards crashing into the walls, causing a massive wreck on the track.
Later in a post-race interview, Carl Edwards expressed his views on the whole situation:
"First of all, that was racing my life up to that point; it was a lot of fun. Joey was so good on the short run, I don't know how he got that restart. It's a really good restart. I thought we were. I thought everything was going to work out." [00:20]
He added:
"Jason told me he was looking low, and he told me, basically, he was there. I knew what Jason was saying, and I just pushed the issue as far as I could, because I figured that was the race there; I thought we had it. This is, I was frustrated." [00:33]
Jimmie Johnson won the race to lift his seventh Cup Series Champion title, whereas Logano finished in fourth place and Edwards in P34. In less than two months, Edwards retired from the sport.
Before Miami, Carl Edwards' risky move backfired at Kansas as he performed a last-minute maneuver over Jimmie Johnson
The former NASCAR Cup Series driver Carl Edwards performed a video game move on the seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in 2008 during the Campion World RV 400 at the Kansas Speedway. Despite his bold move, he still finished behind Johnson.
The now-retired NASCAR driver planned on taking the lead by hitting the wall at high speed in turn three. He expected that the wall would give him a boost and help him increase his speed to take the lead from Johnson, but things went south. Later in a post-race interview, Carl Edwards explained:
"I plan on hitting the wall, but I didn't play on the wall; slow me down that much. I played a lot of video games where you can just run it in the wall and hold it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't work out quite the same as a video game," stated Carl Edwards. [00:37]
Edwards called Johnson a "smart driver" and highlighted that he executed this move on several drivers successfully. While most drivers had backed off, giving him the lead, Jimmie Johnson did the exact opposite. Even after countless efforts to take the lead, Edwards finished as the runner-up, with Johnson winning the race.