Thanks, Gary! Thanks a lot! Thanks for putting that NASCAR bug in my ear!
I’m not a big NASCAR fan (Hey, they’re driving around a big ol’ circle for the whole day, OK?) but I think it’s kind of cool that the guy who won on Sunday was the guy who won on Saturday! And he’s a rookie at that! And he’s got a story…one that includes this…
But in a style that has become typical of Edwards and helped make him popular in and out of the garage, he soon composed himself and began remembering those largely unknown people who helped him when he was a struggling dirt-track driver in Missouri. There he raced cars he prepared in his own garage, supplemented his income by being a substitute school teacher and working construction jobs and passing out business cards, advertising: “Race driver for hire.”
He thanked Mike Mittler, a journeyman owner in the Craftsman Truck Series who gave him his first chance in one of NASCAR’s top three divisions. He thanked his current owner, Jack Roush.
“It’s a long story, but the bottom line is a lot of folks have really been very good to me for some reason,” he said. “I’m really grateful.”
