The NASCAR All Star Race is mostly for bragging rights … and the fans. Leave it to Carl Edwards, however, to give this year's race an ending they'll be talking about for years. No, Carl didn't blow his famous winning backflip: he nearly made his car pull one.
Edwards had dominated the entire race, taking two of the three segments before getting a chance to show off the speed of his pit crew and easily taking the win in the final round. In the long view, it was something of a surprise: Edwards is, of course, a superb racer, but he was only one of several favorites going in. Nonetheless, he pretty much ran the race his way and won handily. It was fun, but not exactly the most exciting or tense race for fans, so Edwards decided to engage in a little showboating...and pride goeth before the fall, as his front end learned the hard way.
Edwards decided to give his victory lap a bit of drama by skidding through the grass, in fine show-off style...and instead got a bit of a surprise when his Ford dug into the ground, crumpling the entire front-end and striking up sparks as it dragged across the blacktop.
As Edwards himself put it: “I almost flipped the thing over. That would have been insane.” Not to mention putting Edwards himself at serious risk of injury.
Fortunately, the only thing that got torn up was the Aflac Ford, and, we're fairly sure, Edwards' pride. No doubt he and his crew were less than happy that their winning car couldn't get to Victory Lane under its own power, and the rest of the crews had a bit of a chuckle at their expense watching the car that beat them get towed, but, after all, Edwards did win fair and square.
Carl, if you're reading, we've got a few recommendations to allow you to showboat without causing thousands in damage and giving everybody at the track a heart attack:
- Land your backflip by going right into a split. Hey, it's your trademark to show off how limber you are. Worst comes to worst, you can enter sports history as the first NASCAR racer to suffer a groin injury.
- Install one of those early warning systems that are so popular in cars these days to let you know when you're about to risk breaking your neck while showing off. We're sure your pit crew would figure out a way to shave off some weight for you to install it, if for no other reason than they don't want to bang out the dents.
- Take a page from football players and have you and your pit crew do an elaborate victory dance on the grass. Bonus points if you can get the crowd to dance along.
But, above all and in all seriousness, Carl, stay safe: no NASCAR fan ever wants to see a great driver get wrecked...especially if it's avoidable. Well, except for those backflips.
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Image Credit: http://media.paddocktalk.com/assets/albums/60_nascar-daytona-carl-edwards.jpg
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