Is Carl Edwards the Most Physically Fit Man in Nascar?

One of the most physically fit drivers in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series is Carl Edwards, driver of the number 99 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing.  Carl Edwards is in such great shape he have even been on the cover of numerous magazines including Men's Health, Men's Fitness and Be Healthy.  He has to be in great shape to be able to do his signature back flip off the racecar window when he wins the race.  Can you imagine doing a back flip off of your car window?  I can barely do a summer sault on the grass.   Carl is just a nice young man from  Missouri.  He got his Nascar start racing in the Camping World Truck Series.  He soon moved over to the Nationwide (was Busch Series)Series in 2002.  Carl is a sponsor’s dream representative, he is your All-American man, nice looking, College Educated, well spoken, polite and having dimples when he smiles is just a bonus.

Most of the drivers in Nascar have some kind of nickname that is given to them. Carl's is “Cousin Carl”. He is actually the cousin of famed Nascar driver Kenny Shrader, who you can now find running dirt tracks around the country since he rarely drives in the Cup Series. I think Carl's should be something that reflects his backflips off the window of his race car when he wins.  Tony Stewart is known as “Smoke”, Kevin Harvick “Happy”, Mark “the Kid” Martin, Ryan Newman, “Rocket Man” and of course we can’t forget “The Herminator”, Kenny Wallace. Kenny actually has several nicknames, his other one being “The Mouth”, you can hear him laughing all over the garage area. It is a very distinctive laugh.

As Carl Edwards escalates up the ladder of success in NASCAR, he is trying to remain just a regular guy but is it possible when he is paid millions a year?   Aflac is his main sponsor for 2009, you know the insurance company represented by the duck.  It has been reported that most sponsors pay upwards of $15 million and some reported to have paid $20 million per season to be the primary sponsor on the racecar and the team uniforms.  It really is great advertising.  On a recent Aflac photo shoot that Carl did preseason, he had to do some promo work with the Aflac duck.  There are actually two ducks, one is named AFLAC and the other Daffy and they are all professionals since this wasn’t any one of their first commercial(including Carl Edwards).  Sometimes Nascar drivers make some goofy commercials, such as the ones Michael Waltrip makes for Napa Auto Parts, but as goofy as they are, you remember them.

Carl won nine races in 2008 and everyone is expecting for him to really make a run for the championship in the 2009 but so far though he hasn't even won a race and were well over halfway through the NASCAR Sprint cup series.

There are very few drivers in NASCAR that actually have a higher education. Carl was a substitute teacher for a while before he started racing full time. Ryan Newman is another driver who has a degree from Purdue University, his degree is in vehicle structur engineering, how appropriate is that! So the upper division of racing in the Nascar Series is not all about the men being "bubbas", but most of these men are well spoken, granted some of them still sound like they didn't graduate high school, when in fact they did. I think it plays up the whole southern redneck persona and ultimately some real bubbas.

One of the enduring things about Carl Edwards is his willingness to learn from his mistakes.  He also learns from the veterans and he even learns from the fans. And what's really great is if he doesn't just shake his head like he is listening to you, he's really listening to you and if it actually applies to something that will help him with his racing or his interaction with fans and sponsors he puts it into practical application.

Carl Edwards has had a couple of skirmishes in his short career in NASCAR. Most notably and widely visible on YouTube is the skirmish with teammate Matt Kenseth. While Matt was giving an on-air interview, Carl Edwards will upset with Matt because of something that happened on the racetrack during the race came up and faked a punch to Matt, on camera no less. The fact that Carl would actually do something like that while Matt was giving an on-air interview that led to speculation that Carl may be on some kind of performance-enhancing drugs or something because that just wasn't his normal personality.

The most recent skirmish was in the garage area of where he and Kevin Harvick (also known as Happy) got into it and Carl got shoved on top of Kevin's car leaving a dent in the hood. Carl is in great physical shape as I mentioned before but Kevin Harvick is a scrappy kind of a guy and I am not sure who I would put my money on if they actually did fight. The thing we have to remember is that these men are full of testosterone and are pumped up after driving cars at approximately 200 mph. If their cars are not handling well, then that just adds to the frustration and it just doesn't take much to get the car or the driver bent out of shape about anything.

The most the time Carl Edwards is just an easy going guy who likes to ride his dirt bike, his bicycle and go play in the woods hiking doing anything that is really physical as he is a fitness nut who works out several times a day which you can tell that if you've seen any of the photos of him without his shirt on a magazine cover. He is ripped! He even still has an old car that he has to push start by himself and then jumping in to get it started, when asked about it he said it was just another way to exercise.

That my friends, is dedication.