Carl Edwards’ Colors Fly
by Tom Jensen June 21, 2024
A member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025, Carl Edwards was a top-notch wheelman who represented a lot of sponsors in NASCAR.
With 72 race victories in NASCAR’s three national touring series as well as one championship, Missouri racer Carl Edwards created a body of work that earned him a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025 alongside Ricky Rudd and Ralph Moody.
Edwards’ impressive resume includes triumphs in two of NASCAR’s majors, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, with both of those wins coming in 2015. He also won the NASCAR All-Star Race in 2011 and the NASCAR Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) championship in 2007.
Edwards finished second in points twice in the Cup Series and in the top five a total of six times. In addition to his Xfinity title, Edwards finished second in points four times and third once in that series.
All told, he racked up 28 Cup, 38 Xfinity and 6 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race victories. With a total of 72 victories in the three NASCAR National Series, Edwards fashioned a compelling portfolio during his career.
While his statistics are solid, Edwards was also a success with fans, the media and sponsors. In a career that saw him drive for Hall of Fame team owners Jack Roush (Class of 2019) and Joe Gibbs (Class of 2020), Edwards was one of the first drivers who had multiple, rotating primary sponsors.
Following are 10 different Edwards paint schemes during his NASCAR career.
Twenty-three of Carl Edwards’ 28 NASCAR Cup Series victories came driving No. 99 Fords owned by Jack Roush. Photo courtesy of Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Marching Through Atlanta
The weekend of March 19-20, 2005, at Atlanta Motor Speedway is one Carl Edwards will never forget. On March 19, Edwards won his first NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) race, the Aaron’s 312. The following day, he won his first Cup NASCAR Series race, passing Jimmie Johnson (Class of 2024) on the final lap to claim victory in the Golden Corral 500. Both of Edwards’ Atlanta victories came behind the wheel of Fords owned by Jack Roush (Class of 2019).
At Kansas Speedway in 2006, Carl Edwards’ Ford carried primary sponsorship from Office Depot. Photo courtesy of Brian Bahr/Getty Images
A Midwest Staple
A native of neighboring Missouri, Carl Edwards enjoyed racing at Kansas Speedway, where his Jack Roush-owned Fords were almost always competitive. In the 2006 Banquet Foods 400 at Kansas Speedway, Edwards qualified an uncharacteristic 27th, forcing him to start deep in the 43-car lineup. But Edwards made a good day of it, driving through the field to lead seven laps and post a solid sixth-place finish.
Car owner Jack Roush (left) and driver Carl Edwards won the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series championship. Photo courtesy of Doug Benc/Getty Images
Double Duty
From 2005-2011, Carl Edwards competed full-time in both of NASCAR’s top divisions. The 2007 season saw Edwards win three races and finish ninth in points in the NASCAR Cup Series. His results were even better in the second-tier NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series), where Edwards won the series championship after winning four races, with 15 top-five and 21 top-10s in a 35-race season.
For the 2008 season, insurance company Aflac came on board to sponsor Carl Edwards. Photo courtesy of Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
High Water Mark
The 2008 season was the best of Carl Edwards’ Hall of Fame career. In the NASCAR Cup Series, he set career bests in race victories (nine), top fives (19) and top 10s (27). Edwards also finished second in Cup points standings for the first time. He also had a solid year in the Xfinity series, where he won seven races and finished second in points.
Under the lights at Daytona International Speedway, Carl Edwards came into the pits for tires and fuel in the 2009 Coke Zero 400. Photo courtesy of Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
Fueled Up and Fresh
In 24 NASCAR Cup Series appearances at Daytona International speedway, Carl Edwards posted four top-five finishes, with a best of second behind Trevor Bayne in the 2011 Daytona 500. One of Edwards’ best runs at Daytona came in 2009, when he qualified his Jack Roush-owned Ford fifth on the grid and ended the night in fourth place.
Kellogg’s and Cheez-It sponsored Carl Edwards twice in 2010. Photo courtesy of Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
Snack Time
In 2010, Carl Edwards, had a whopping 10 different primary sponsors over the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series regular season. Kellog’s and Cheez-It, were on the No. 99 Ford at the first Pocono Raceway event in June and at Richmond International Raceway (now Richmond Raceway) in late September. At Richmond, Edwards earned one of his 22 career Cup Series poles and finished 10th in the Air Guard 400 race.
At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards led 69 of 267 laps to capture the 2011 Kobalt Tools 400. Photo courtesy of Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
The Winner
It didn’t take long for Carl Edwards to break into the winner’s circle in 2011. The Missouri native won the third NASCAR Cup Series race of the year, the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Curiously, Edwards did not win another race that season, although he did go on to tie Tony Stewart (Class of 2020) for the series championship. Stewart was awarded the title on a tiebreaker for most race victories.
Geek Squad, a technical support service offered by retailer Best Buy, came on board to sponsor Carl Edwards in 2012. Photo courtesy of John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR
Tech Support
With technology companies playing an ever-larger role in the U.S. economy, it was no surprise that Best Buy, one of the nation’s largest electronics retailers, jumped into NASCAR by sponsoring Carl Edwards and the No. 99 Ford. Best Buy’s Geek Squad tech support service was Edwards’ primary sponsor for the 2012 Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
One of the biggest victories of Carl Edwards’ career came in the 2015 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Photo courtesy of Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images
Rebel Yell
Moving to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015 paid immediate dividends for Carl Edwards, who in his first year with the team won two of NASCAR’s biggest races, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The latter was the first Throwback Weekend for Darlington, a track that is NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway. Ironically, Edwards’ Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was one of the only cars in the field without a throwback paint scheme because his sponsor, Arris, was a technology company that was only 20 years old.
In his final year of competition, Carl Edwards made it all the way to the Championship Four Round of the NASCAR playoffs. Photo courtesy of Brian Lawdermilk/NASCAR via Getty Images
Final Showdown
Always a sponsor favorite, Carl Edwards had six different primary sponsors in the season-ending, 10 race NASCAR playoffs. Edwards made it through the first three rounds of the NASCAR playoffs and was racing for the lead in the season-ending Ford Eco-Boost 400 late in the race when he had contact with another car and wrecked with just 11 laps to go.
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