Carl Edwards looks to be latest driver to thrive with new team
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Carl Edwards had long since made his decision by the time the four drivers still eligible to win the 2014 Sprint Cup championship convened at the interview stage.
Edwards could have used that event before the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway as a final validation.
But Edwards already had decided on his new path. Out of the Chase and in his last of 11 seasons with Roush Fenway Racing, seeing the four finalists only underscored his decision.
Two of the four drivers, including eventual champion Kevin Harvick, and runner-up Ryan Newman, were in their first seasons with new teams and a third, Joey Logano, was in just his second.
Edwards advocates change as a necessary and motivating force. And several drivers have used change to improve their career trajectory in recent seasons. That doesn't mean his path to that stage this November is predestined, he told Paste BN Sports.
"It appears that just change in this sport does a lot," the 35-year-old said. "That's the biggest thing. I haven't won in another Sprint Cup race here. This may not work. I've only won Sprint Cup races with one team, so I have a lot to go prove here, go do."
Matt Kenseth had done just that in 2013, bolting from the comfort of RFR after 13 seasons, 24 wins and the 2003 series championship for his own opportunity replacing Logano in the No. 20 Toyota at JGR. The results were immediate and instrumental in Edwards' decision, as Kenseth led the series in 2013 with seven wins and finished second in points to recertify himself as a title contender in his early 40s.
"I guess for me the real eye-opener was Matt making his change and having all that success he had," Edwards said. "For me, I had to take a step back and say, 'Hey, in 10 years from now am I going to be upset I didn't take this opportunity?' And the answer was yes, so that's why I made this decision."
Reteaming with Kenseth pivotal
RFR's de-evolution from a five-car power annually brandishing multiple title contenders to a rebuilding project simplified Edwards' decision, he concedes. Edwards amassed 23 Cup wins with RFR, finishing second in points in 2008 to Jimmie Johnson and again in a 2011 heart-breaker in which he tied Tony Stewart in final points but was beaten by virtue of four fewer wins. Edwards accounted for four of RFR's five wins the last two seasons.
Edwards had joined RFR as a truck series driver in 2003 as the organization, stoked by the internal competition engendered by owner Jack Roush, won consecutive Cup titles with Kurt Busch and Kenseth, then consumed half the Chase berths in 2005 with Greg Biffle (second in points), Edwards (third), Mark Martin (fourth), Kenseth (seventh) and Busch (10th). He hopes to experience that euphoria again. And he has an expectation of it although Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch won a combined ten fewer races last season than in 2013.
"I didn't understand how fortunate I was," he said of his beginnings at Roush. "JGR, statistically, they've run very well the last three of four years. Laps led, races won, it's been spectacular. I think I am more grateful now to be a part of that than I have ever been."
Edwards said he also covets a "do-over" as a teammate with Kenseth, after, he said, "I really don't think I valued it as much as I should have" at Roush.
Edwards, though, said he isn't out to prove he made a wise decision.
"I want to win," he said. "I want to do better."
PHOTOS: Behind the wheel with Carl Edwards
Switching teams proves successful
The data is encouraging over the past few Sprint Cup seasons, though most drivers who switched teams and enjoyed a renaissance struggle to find a common theme in all of their successes. Individual reasons, some mechanical, some mental, seem to have contributed to the common rejuvenation.
"I think it really depends why you switched teams," Kenseth said. "If the driver makes the decision they want to go somewhere else, obviously, more times than not they feel like it's going to be an upgrade or they wouldn't go. I think a lot of it just depends. Certainly, my situation I felt extremely confident about it from the first time we talked about it and I saw what was going on over there and all that, felt really good about it. Certainly didn't disappoint.
"You look at Joey's second year when he was right down there contending for a championship, as well, and runs way better than he ran in the car that I'm driving. Sometimes you mix it up a little bit, get a different mix of guys and a mix of ideas as far as organization things and it might just fit you better."
Some just needed a reason to go to work in the morning.
After 14 years at Richard Childress Racing, including two Nationwide championships and the personal and professional upheaval of replacing the late Dale Earnhardt after his death in the 2001 Daytona 500, the relationship between Harvick and RCR had been exhausted. Harvick and Childress managed an amicable finish after he won the penultimate race of the season and claimed third place in the standings.
"For me, I was just tired of going to work and that's just not a healthy way to be productive in this environment because it takes a lot of work and effort and things to be competitive and there's going to be a lot of up and downs and a lot of things emotionally to deal with," Harvick said. "So if you have a bad attitude about the things that are around you and that are going on, you're not going to win, you're not going to beat the guys we race against on a weekly basis unless you have your whole life in order.
"For me to come over here and be with this group was very refreshing for me, very motivating."
Several benefited from the alteration, as Harvick won a first Cup title with Stewart-Haas Racing and his replacement, SHR castoff Ryan Newman, finished a career-best second in points despite going winless.
Joe Gibbs, a long-time Sunday afternoon motivator at racetracks and in NFL locker rooms as a head coach, said the ego of a professional athlete has much to do with the phenomenon.
"Anybody," he said, "is going to want to show that old team what they're missing, I think, and the new team what they got."
And Gibbs might be in position to benefit from it yet again.
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