| |  | | CIA Stock Photo | Edwards negotiated his contract without any input from an agent, an experience he deems as 'neat.' | | | | HERE TO STAY | Edwards signs multiyear contract with Roush Fenway Racing | |
| | Rea White / SceneDaily.com Carl Edwards says that he has signed a multiyear NASCAR Sprint Cup Series contract to continue driving for Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards, has driven full time for team owner Jack Roush since 2004, finished third in series points in 2005 and has already won three NASCAR Cup races this season.
“I signed my contract yesterday, so I’m staying with Roush,” Edwards said Friday afternoon at Richmond International Raceway. “I looked at everything and I talked to everybody, and, for me, the number one thing is looking into the future and saying, ‘Where can I win the most races and have the most success?’ I was honored at the people who I got to speak with, and I just feel like for me personally this is where I want to be for the near future, and we got it done.
“It’s good. I’m real happy about it. It’s a huge relief. It really wasn’t that painful. [Roush Fenway Racing President] Geoff Smith and I get
along really well, and we just pretty much sat down, and he’s really easy for me to deal with. It took us about a week and a half of going back and forth with just little things, and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world for the contract I got.”
Edwards negotiated his contract without any input from an agent, an experience he deems as “neat.” He said that might have been a problem if he’d been dealing with someone he didn’t trust, but that he has a good relationship with Smith and that talks went smoothly.
Edwards, who is currently 10th in series points, said that there were several attractive things about staying with Roush Fenway.
“There are a few things,” he said. “Robbie Reiser running the place, that’s a big deal for me. More and more, I’m understanding how
important that is. Things we’ve been doing with this car of tomorrow to make it better, I feel like it’s very efficient how everyone is working, and it’s making the cars faster, and I feel like our engine program has a lot in the near future that’s going to be great.
“Plus, my pit crew, I’ve struggled since I’ve been here with changing people and having different pit crew guys, and I feel like finally with Robbie managing that I’ve got a group of guys that are going to be really good over the next three years. I kind of know everything and where it’s headed. We’re winning right now, and I think it’s going to be better, so that kind of made it easy for me.”
While he didn’t delve into details, he did admit that he was pleased with the new agreement.
“It’s a great contract,” he said. “It’s a dream contract for me, and I’m really excited about it.”
So is Roush. The team owner said that there were other offers involved - and that he was pleased that Edwards ended up staying put. He said that he believes the contract is for three years.
"We’ve certainly been challenged there by another team and Carl heard that challenge and considered very carefully what was there for him from a performance point of view and what the economic impact was of the offer we could make, as well as the competitive offers, and that put us in a competition there that I’m happy came out favorably, but I was not thrilled to find out we were in that competition," Roush said.
| | Posted May 02, 2008 , 5:45 pm EST
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