Carl Edwards

Carl: (Talking about beating Micheal Schumacher at the Race of Champions in London, England) [Beating Schumacher] meant a lot to me. I don't know if it should or not, but it did. I was not necessarily a Michael Schumacher fan because I didn't watch a lot of Formula One when he was racing, but my trainer, Dean -- who was with me -- is a huge Michael Schumacher fan so I hear a lot about him. When they told me I was going, they said they'd do their best to get me in a race with Schumacher, and Dean was so excited it got me excited. We got through our first races and I thought 'here's my chance -- I get to see where I really stack up.' The neatest part, that I'll never forget, is when we rolled out from under the grandstands, to where you are before you get on the track. I was going back and forth really hard, warming up my tires, and I could see Michael look in his mirror and he started going back and forth, doing burnouts as we warmed up our tires and brakes.I didn't give him a lot of room -- I kind of forced him to have less room, so we're back there playing mind games with each other. We both wanted to win pretty badly. Then we got out there and got to racing and just to be able to beat him -- I don't know if he missed a shift and he didn't get as much practice in that car as I did. But just to see how excited Dean was, was cool.

Carl: (Talking about his strong finish by winning the last race of the season in the Nationwide Series by beating Kyle Bush but missing the title by 21 points behind Clint Bowyer) That's a great win, to hold off the 18 [Busch], as strong as he's been all season. If I've got to get beat by somebody, a dirt racer from Emporia, Kan., [Bowyer's hometown] is one of the best. But we'll be back next year, and I hope Clint will, too. There's no shame in giving 100 percent and finishing second. That's all we could do.

Carl: (Talking about one of his main rivals, Kyle Bush, racing full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2009) That'll be fun. ( grinning) Kyle's an unreal competitor and those [Gibbs] guys are good. But I'll tell you what -- I couldn't be more excited.