Carl Edwards is looking to put a disappointing 2012 behind him and hopes his pairing with veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig will result in multiple wins this coming season.
“I would like to put last year out of my memory and not think about it too much. Not in the last few years have I been this excited to go racing. I think it is probably because my off-season has been a little longer than most. I didn’t go to Vegas so I have been ready to go. It is nice to be here.”
Having the multi-time Daytona 500 winning crew chief in his corner has reenergized Edwards who hopes to win several times early in the season and not have to worry about making the Chase down the stretch. Edwards went winless last season and failed to make the Chase for just the second time in his career.
Edwards just failed to capture any momentum at the start of the season and eventually lost long-time crew chief Bob Osborne who stepped down due to health reasons. Osborne was replaced with Chad Norris who only secured four top-10s while paired with Edwards.
For his part, Edwards is ready move on from last year and is excited for the opportunity to work with Fennig.
“Respectfully I don’t want to talk about [last year’s crew chief situation] again,” Edwards said. “This year I think we have a couple of really good things going for us. I think Jimmy Fennig being the experienced guy that he is…I think that will help me…
“Last year we had a lot of adversity and did the best we could with it. We didn’t get the performance we wanted but when I take a step back and truly look at it I think we have a pretty good situation now. You never know. We could go out and win 10 races or we can have trouble. I feel like we have the deck stacked in our favor.”
Edwards is also looking forward to working with Penske Racing drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano whom joined Ford for the start of this season. Edwards believes that having the defending Sprint Cup Series champion at the same manufacturer will be a positive for everyone at Roush Fenway Racing. Edwards just hopes his team is up to the task of being able to provide valuable data in exchange.
“I hope we can share information,” Edwards said. “It would help us a lot. The way that Brad ran at the end of last year, that was spectacular and at the end of the day I hope we have something to give them so that they will reciprocate.
“The more teams you have working together the more information you have and more ideas you have and it makes things better. I am looking forward to it and hope we get to share a lot of information.”
Edwards enters the 2013 season with 19 wins in 301 starts. He was the championship runner-up in both the 2008 and 2011 seasons.