By Bruce Martin
NSSN Correspondent

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — When he was a young, aspiring race driver, Carl Edwards took out a classified ad that included his picture in National Speed Sport News in 1997. As one of the leading trade publications in auto racing, Edwards was hoping to attract some attention and ultimately a ride.
“Speed Sport had this thing where I think it was $28 to put a picture in with like four lines of text,” Edwards recalled. “Just to put four lines of text it was $7.50 a week or something like that. I didn’t realize that you could just pay the one time — the $28 — and you got to keep the picture in there until you changed it. So I was pumped. It was like the deal of all deals and that was pretty cool.”
Edwards recalled he never heard from any team owners, but he heard from plenty of race drivers that wanted to know if the ad really worked.
“I said, ‘Place an ad for yourself and find out,’” Edwards recalled. “Or, I told them, ‘No, it just doesn’t work. Don’t do it.’”
So as Edwards continued to race and look for his big break, the Columbia, Mo., driver didn’t always get positive feedback. In fact, a crew member who worked for another well-known racer from Missouri, Ken Schrader, didn’t think he had it in him.
“I shared a hotel room with him one time when I was 17 years old and he was working for Kenny and he laughed at me, told me I would never make it in racing, it’s too hard,” Edwards recalled. “So it feels good to accomplish something.”
What Edwards accomplished this year was the NASCAR Busch Series championship. And he did it in incredible fashion, defeating David Reutimann by a whopping 618 points.
Edwards is just happy to be called a “champion.”
“I’m very pleased to be a champion,” Edwards said. “I can’t thank Jack (car owner Jack Roush) enough for giving me the opportunities that he has in my career. I can’t wait to do it again next year.”