| | STILL SMILIN' | Carl Edwards showing his cool in tense race situations | |
|  | | CIA Stock Photo | Edwards admits he was a bit nervous while NASCAR officials conferred, but forced himself to remain calm. He went on to win at Vegas. | | By Jeff Owens / FOXSports.com As Carl Edwards cruised around Las Vegas Motor Speedway at pace-car speed Sunday, he had the theme from "Jeopardy" ringing in his head.
As the tick-tock song hummed in his head, crew chief Bob Osborne was about to have a coronary on pit road as he pleaded with NASCAR officials.
There was something wrong with this picture.
Edwards is not always NASCAR's calmest, coolest and most collected character, especially when things suddenly go wrong. Osborne, on the other hand, is NASCAR's poster boy for tranquility. Almost always composed, the soft-spoken Osborne rarely loses his cool.
But when a tire accidentally got away from his crew on pit road during the UAW-Dodge 400, threatening to saddle Edwards with a costly penalty that could have cost him race, Osborne was about to lose it.
"I kept my head the best I could ... but I wanted to go ballistic, for sure, and yell and scream and kick and punch and do whatever I had to do to get my way," Osborne said.
The fact that Osborne kept his cool and calmly explained the situation to NASCAR officials — a television cameraman got in his crew's way, preventing it from catching the tire — earned Edwards and crew a huge break. NASCAR concurred with Osborne's argument that the cameraman prohibited his crew from doing its job, waving off a potential penalty and allowing Edwards to charge ahead and win the race.
Edwards admits he was a bit nervous while NASCAR officials conferred, but forced himself to remain calm.
"I try really hard to stay clam," he said. "I'm not the best at it sometimes, we all know that, but I try really hard. There's not much you can do too fix that stuff. You hear the 'Jeopardy' song just playing, just waiting for Bob to tell me everything is going to be all right."
There's no telling how Edwards might have reacted had the call not gone his way. He had already calmly rallied from one penalty for a loose tire on pit road. And, in the past, he has sometimes lashed out when he feels he's been wronged.
Two years ago at Michigan, he stomped into Victory Lane and angrily confronted Dale Earnhardt Jr. after getting wrecked late in a race in what is now the Nationwide Series. The same year, he threatened to make Tony Stewart "bleed" after a wreck at Pocono. Late last year, he angrily feigned a punch at teammate Matt Kenseth after an incident at Martinsville, raising serious questions about his character and temper.
Edwards has vowed to put such incidents behind him and seems to be working hard to control his emotions.
Some saw Edwards as a raging hothead after last year's ugly incident, which was so frightening that it drew more than 100,000 hits on YouTube. Others view him as an extremely intense competitor who just hates to lose. They believe his aw-shucks, happy-go-lucky demeanor is closer to his real personality.
This may be the year we learn which is the true Edwards. Sunday's race may have gone a long way toward revealing a calmer, more mature side of Roush Fenway Racing's young star.
While some drivers were irate on their in-car radios during tough times Sunday — both Busch brothers, for instance — Edwards could have lost his cool when, amazingly, a second tire got loose from his crew. Instead, he calmly allowed his crew chief to handle the situation and whistled the tune to "Jeopardy" while the scene played out.
He then went about his business of taking control of the race and winning for the second straight week, and in the process taking the Sprint Cup points lead for the first time in his career.
Edwards says now that he enjoys and thrives on such anxious moments. Adversity drives him, he says.
"For me personally, there is nothing else I can do in my life that gives me that feeling of anticipation and anxiety and excitement. I just enjoy it," he said. "That's it, that's what we do this for — the challenge. And man, I really like it. It's fun for me."
Edwards has had plenty of fun the past two weeks. And he's handled his challenges with character and professionalism.
A greater test will come on days when he does not have the dominant car or when things don't go his way. But Sunday's performance may prepare him for tougher days.
If it does, Edwards may well be on his way to becoming a Sprint Cup champion.
| | Posted March 07, 2008 , 6:34 pm EST
Last Updated March 07, 2008 , 6:36 pm EST | | | | | | |
