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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Edwards Jumps Into New Season
Series point leader Carl Edwards tries his hand at leaping off buildings…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted February 26, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Carl Edwards announced last week his plans to return to RFR in 2011. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Team owner Jack Roush might want to pay a little more attention to what driver Carl Edwards is doing in his spare time, particularly now that he’s the Sprint Cup point leader.

It’s well known that Edwards is an adventurous sort.

But now he’s jumping off tall buildings. Not backflipping. Jumping straight off.

Edwards was in Las Vegas Thursday on a promotional jaunt for next week’s Sprint Cup race. Instead of high-rolling, he high-jumped – as in from the top of the Stratosphere Tower, a landmark that soars 855 feet (about 108 floors) above the Las Vegas Strip.

Folks who venture to the top of the tower have numerous entertainment choices, including a roller-coaster ride. There also is something called the Sky Jump, which allows participants to leap from the tower (with supporting harness, of course).

Edwards leaped.

“I’m going to go back to the Stratosphere and jump off of it again, I think,” Edwards said. “It’s so neat… I’ve never jumped out of anything. I always thought, ‘Oh, that ought to be easy.’ I really did think that this was going to be no big deal, and I’m telling you when I landed my heart was pounding.”

Chances are Edwards’ heart was operating at peak levels last Sunday, too, as he came within a few feet of winning the Daytona 500. Trevor Bayne blocked him at the last instant and won the race, leaving Edwards second but giving him first place in series points as the season opened.

Edwards said he had several options at the end of the 500 but is satisfied that he made the best run he could.

“I’ve thought about it a lot, and I’ve watched the replay a couple times,” he said. “There are a lot of things I could have done differently. I’m certain that one of those things would have meant that I would have had a better chance at winning the race, but, looking back on it, I think I made the best decision I could have made there at the time. In the end, it kind of ensured a Ford would win the race.
Carl Edwards' 2012 plans are a hot topic in NASCAR. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“But, yeah, I just hope to be in that position a number of times. I think if I can do that a number of times, then one of them we’ll win. The trick is to be around at the end like that.

“But I’ve got to say that this week I did think about it a lot, and I thought about it from different points of view the best I could, and I was inspired by Trevor this week – not as a competitor but as a person. It’s neat to see a guy so happy about winning a race and to see a guy who seemed to handle it so well. That was really an inspiring thing. It made me excited to come here and race. It made me feel good about racing and feel good about this thing that we do every week. That was pretty cool.”

Edwards called Sunday’s Phoenix race “the start of the season that you can control more. That race on Sunday [at Daytona], that’s a tough one. That’s a tough one to be in control of your own destiny and your own fate.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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