NASCAR’s Edwards retires
In a stunning decision, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards is walking away from the final year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing less than two months after nearly winning his first Cup championship, two people with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday. Joe Gibbs Racing scheduled a pair of news conferences Wednesday in which Edwards is expected to announce he will not drive the No. 19 Toyota next season. The second announcement is that reigning Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez will replace Edwards in the Cup Series.
The 37-year-old Edwards informed team owner Joe Gibbs right before Christmas that he no longer wanted to compete, the sources said.
Edwards won three races in 2016 as JGR dominated the regular season and put two drivers in the final four. He spent 13 years in the Cup Series and has 28 career victories in 445 starts.
His story has always been one of local-driver-makes-it-big. He was a substitute teacher who handed out business cards at race tracks trying to get a shot at a NASCAR job. He landed one with Jack Roush and won the 2007 Xfinity Series title. Edwards was also the top rookie in 2003 in the truck series and 2005 in Xfinity.
Suarez, from Mexico, became the first foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR national series when he earned the Xfinity title last season. He will join Kyle Larson as the only two drivers from NASCAR’s diversity program to race at the top level.