“Biggest Insecure Bully J*rk” – Carl Edwards Recalls His Abnormal Outburst Compromising His Partnership With Fan-Favorite Legend

6 min read

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re so mad you almost do something dumb, then spend years kicking yourself for it? Well, turns out, Carl Edwards has. But luckily, he did not let his emotions grab him by the neck, and let go. What would have been worse was seeing him attack his own team member! And, Greg Biffle put it well, “It doesn’t boil down to a personality conflict. It doesn’t boil down to how a person acts. It doesn’t boil down to who is friends and who isn’t friends. It boils down to how you race one another on the racetrack.”

On a recent episode of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, Cousin Carl spilled his guts about a day that still haunts him—a time he nearly punched teammate Matt Kenseth in the face. The reason? Well Edwards doesn’t remember it! “It’s sad because I don’t even remember,” Edwards said, laughing at how petty it got. “In my mind, I felt like Matt had just not given, not given, not given.” Looking back, he knows who is wrong.

Carl Edwards is ashamed of his past self

The race they are talking about was 2007’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville. But, there was nothing significantly wrong about the race. No deadly track accidents or spinouts. Carl Edwards was enraged because of the previous races. It was the aftermath of the Busch Series race in Kansas, and Greg Biffle was the eye witness.

“Carl was three-wide with Matt at Kansas, and they bumped and he got a fender into the tire. That was Carl’s choice to race three-wide at that point. Carl made the conscious decision to go out there and try to make that pass at that point in the race on the restart, so that was his decision. And then later, when he went out of the race for an unrelated reason, he crashed out of the race. It had nothing to do with that at all, and was very upset with Matt. So that’s where it all started,” Biffle said about the incident. But, Cousin Carl now understands that he was the one at fault.

But, that cutting off made Carl Edwards mad. “Tell Matt he’s got one coming … that is baloney,” said over his in-car radio. But, now Edwards knows that it was on him. He had apologized after that act anyways, back in the day saying, “I definitely want to apologize to my fans, to Office Depot, to Matt Kenseth, to DeWalt, to everyone at Roush Fenway for letting it come to that. That was definitely the wrong thing to do.”And, how did the apology come from ‘Entitled Edwards’? For that we need to understand why Edwards felt so entitled in the very first place.

A young Carl Edwards entered Roush Racing with the greatest group of drivers. “I stepped into the 99 car after Jeff Burton and those guys had built that team, I mean I got given everything on a silver platter and I didn’t take the time to appreciate it, I just went straight to this is what I deserve and we’re going to go get more of it,” Edwards said. But, this attitude led him to such an incident.

The key role in this process of realization came from two places, the Crew Chief Bob Osborne, and his sponsors from Office Depot. Edwards remembers the incident as vibrantly as it gets. He said, “Bob Osborne’s like, ‘Hey, man, I was joking around. That was the dumbest thing you could have done.’ He’s like, ‘what are you doing? Matt’s your teammate. You’re an idiot. Matt is so, so amazing. He he brushed that off.’ He showed me so much grace. Man, what a guy. And so that was a that was a lesson for me.

Edwards then spoke of his sponsors in the race. “I remember one of my sponsors from Office Depot called and said, ‘You look like the biggest, like insecure bully j— ever! Like, do not act that way.’ I was like, oh, my gosh!” But, now that the dust has settled, he looks at the way Matt Keseth was, and appreciates it.

Carl Edwards said about his teammate-adversary, “Matt [Kenseth] is an extremely, I mean you know Matt as well as anybody, he is so smart, he’s so wise and he doesn’t mince any words, he doesn’t cut any slack, he’s going to give you exact which you give. And so, he knew how to push my buttons right to the edge he was I mean like a black belt at screwing with me.” For a very long time, people speculated it was his beef with Kenseth which sent him out of the tracks secretly. But, the reason was something else, and for Cousin Carl, 2016 comes back to him at times.

Carl Edwards still feels the sting of 2016 but now he’s back

Carl Edwards hasn’t forgotten 2016. That final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he was inches from his first NASCAR Cup Series title, still gnaws at him. “I know NASCAR was throwing those cautions to make it more exciting. That’s a fact,” he said on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast. A late yellow flag flipped the race upside down, and a crash ended his shot. He walked away, retired at 37 and left fans stunned.

Nine years later, he’s back, but not in the driver’s seat. Edwards is joining Amazon Prime Video’s NASCAR broadcast team for 2025. Starting with the Coca-Cola 600 in May, he’ll be in the studio, breaking down races with a Hall of Famer’s eye. “I got nothing to hide,” he told. No more trade secrets, just straight talk from a guy who’s seen it all.

That 2016 loss stings because it was so close. He’d won 28 races, finished runner-up twice, and had the car to finally seal it. But when NASCAR’s called a caution, he’s sure it was for drama and it ripped away. “It’s a risky sport,” he said back then, and it pushed him out. He went cold turkey on racing.

Now, he’s stepping back in. Not to race, but to share what he knows. The guy who nearly punched Matt Kenseth has learned grace the hard way. And now he wants to give fans the real deal. That 2016 heartbreak is still there and fueling him. Edwards is ready to talk and maybe heal a little too.

The post “Biggest Insecure Bully J*rk” – Carl Edwards Recalls His Abnormal Outburst Compromising His Partnership With Fan-Favorite Legend appeared first on EssentiallySports.