Former Cup Series star Carl Edwards is the latest driver to be named to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list.
“You’re going to flippin’ love this,” NASCAR’s official Twitter account wrote, as the man famous for punctuating his wins with a backflip took his place among the sport’s best.
Edwards, 43, was a 28-time winner in the Cup Series and one of the most popular drivers on the circuit. Though he never finished atop the Cup Series points standings, he won the Xfinity Series championship in 2007. Edwards had some close calls throughout his career, finishing second in the final points standings in 2008 and 2011. He finished in the top-10 of the points standings in eight of his 12 seasons in the Cup Series, including a fourth place finish in his final campaign in 2016.
Edwards stepped away from the sport the following offseason at the age of 36. While the Daytona 500 eluded him, Edwards won on some of NASCAR’s biggest stages. In 2015, he raced his No. 19 Toyota Camry to victory lane in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Carl Edwards Fortunate to Be on NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers List
Edwards told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Monday that he learned of the news after receiving a phone call from Lesa France Kennedy, Executive Vice Chair of NASCAR.
“I had been watching, I thought it was so cool, I actually looked at this about a week ago and I thought ‘this is so neat NASCAR’s doing this,'” Edwards said. “And the competitor in me was like ‘man, I wonder if I’ll be on this list.’ And then, the more I thought about it, I thought ‘there’s no way, I’m looking at these names.’
“And so today, Randy Fuller sent me a text message that said ‘hey, there’s gonna be a Daytona number that’s gonna call you at this time and you need to answer it.’ And I thought “aw man, this is cool.’ And it ended up being more than cool. It was Lesa Kennedy. Lesa called me, and she’s been a friend of mine since I was racing at Capital Speedway at the dirt track. And for her to deliver that news to me… I sat down with my wife afterwards. And I thought ‘how fortunate am I to have done something that I love and to have met so many great people.'”
Edwards is the 11th addition to the original list of 50, established in 1998. Edwards joins Cup Series champions such as Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Tony Stewart on the list.
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