Carl Edwards' Critical Revelation
by Tom Jensen January 09, 2025
A moment of crushing disappointment led Carl Edwards to make a life-changing decision.
Editor’s note: On Friday, February 7, Carl Edwards will join Ricky Rudd and the late Ralph Moody as inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Tickets for Induction Weekend events are available here.
Preparing for the final race of the 2016 season, Carl Edwards had no idea about how dramatically his life would soon change. Photo courtesy of Mike Ehrmann/NASCAR via Getty Images
On the night of November 20, 2016, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Carl Edwards was 10 laps away from winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
At that precise moment, no one, least of all Edwards, knew he would never race full-time again.
Kyle Busch (from left), Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano were the 2016 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 title contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo courtesy of Chris Trotman/Getty Images
Driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Hall of Fame team owner Joe Gibbs (Class of 2020), Edwards was one of four drivers in contention for the Cup Series championship in the EcoBoost 400 at Homestead. Edwards led 47 laps at the 1.5-mile South Florida track, more than the combined total led by the three other title hopefuls, Jimmie Johnson (Class of 2024), Joey Logano and Kyle Busch.
Among the championship contenders, Edwards clearly had the fastest car, with the title he had fought so hard to earn for more than a decade seemingly within his grasp.
Then, disaster.
For much of the 2016 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Carl Edwards’ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota looked like the car to beat. Photo courtesy of Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
On a restart with 10 laps to go, Edwards was on the inside of Row 1, next to leader Kyle Larson. But as the cars headed towards Turn 1, Logano moved down from the inside of the second row, attempting to go beneath Edwards, who in turn threw a block.
The nose of Logano’s onrushing Team Penske Ford made contact with the rear of Edwards’ Toyota, sending the No. 19 spinning into the inside of the frontstretch wall, then back across the track into the outside wall and out of competition. Johnson went on to win both the race and his record-tying seventh Cup Series championship.
It was a moment of devastating disappointment for Edwards, but it ultimately led him to making one of the most important decisions of his life, deciding to retire from full-time racing.
Contact with Joey Logano put Carl Edwards into the wall at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2016, ending Edwards’ hopes of a NASCAR Cup Series championship. Photo courtesy of Chris Trotman/Getty Images
“We left Homestead with an outcome that we didn't want,” said Edwards. “And I got home, started preparing for the next season (2017) like I'd been doing. And some things became really clear to me: that while there are things that are very valuable in life, winning races and championships … there were some things that were truly priceless.
“And I realized that if I was honest with myself about those priceless things, my family, the time I have here on earth and my health so that I can be the husband, father, and person that I wanted to be, I couldn't continue to race the way I was,” said Edwards. “And so for me it was a very tough decision.”
Once the decision was made, Edwards had to tell team owner Joe Gibbs.
“When I went in the office and said, ‘Hey, this is what I'm thinking,’ he (Gibbs) stuck out his hand and he said, ‘I'll help you. I think this is a good choice that you are making for you.’"
“And that was a big deal to me,” Edwards said. “And so I see now very clearly that the plan was this all along. I'm so grateful that we didn't win that race in 2016 because I wouldn't have quit, and I wouldn't have been able to move into this new season in my life that has really been amazing.”
Carl Edwards is set to become a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025. Photo courtesy of Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
On January 10, 2017, FoxSports.com broke the news that Edwards was stepping away from racing, effective immediately. Edwards confirmed the report the next day during a press conference at Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters in Huntersville, North Carolina.
While the abrupt departure caught many in the NASCAR community by surprise, for Edwards, the decision was obvious.
“I thought, ‘You know what? If I don't care about money or what anybody else on earth thinks, what would I do right now?’ And it was simple. I need to put down the steering wheel. That chapter's over and I need to focus on these other things.”
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