Carl Edwards Advance
Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 11-19 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Daytona 500
Carl Edwards
Team: No.99 Office Depot Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Bob Osborne
Chassis Number: RK-336
Edwards on racing at Daytona:
“I can’t wait to run this year’s Daytona 500. It’s hard to imagine this will be my 50th Cup start; this is such a milestone in my racing career. We are starting this year with a full-time sponsor, which was different from our position last year. Office Depot will be on our new Ford Fusion for the entire season and beyond. I am very grateful to everyone who helped make this all come true. After testing the Ford Fusion here at Daytona and in Las Vegas, I feel very confident heading into the 2006 season. It is important for me, Bob Osborne, and the Office Depot team to start this season off on the right foot. I won the Craftsman Truck Series race here in Daytona two years ago and would love to repeat at this year’s Daytona 500. This will be a great year for everyone at Office Depot, my guys here, and everyone back at Roush Racing.”
Crew Chief Bob Osborne on racing at Daytona:
“We are excited about the 500, we have a new style racecar for our company, which we are trying out both in the Bud Shootout, as well as the 500. At the test we were pretty happy with our race configuration. Qualifying speeds were mediocre, which is probably where we normally are for our program. In drafting I felt like we were fairly competitive during our sessions. Heading into this season we do have some personnel changes. Pierre Kuettel has moved on to run the Busch program, which has allowed me to move up Jason Myers as car chief. Our plan is starting this season where we left off last season. As long as we are as competitive as we were at the end of the season, we should be pretty good.”
FAST FACTS
This will be Carl Edwards’ 50th start in his Nextel Cup Series career. Edwards’ first Cup start came in August of 2004 in Michigan.
Edwards’ average start at restrictor-plate tracks is 23.4; with his average finish at 22.6. At his most recent plate race (Talladega ’05) he posted a top-five finish.
Edwards enters the year as one of four drivers to have more than two wins in each series (Cup, Busch, and Truck). Also, Edwards is one of eight drivers to have a pole in each of the series.
In Edwards’ 49 Cup starts, 29% have resulted in Top-five’s and 47% resulted in Top 10’s.
Edwards is one of four drivers making their first start in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. Edwards won two poles last year, at Fontana and Homestead.
