In a bombshell dropped to the NASCAR world, Carl Edwards is expected to announce Wednesday morning at Joe Gibbs Racing that he will retire from competing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series effective immediately to pursue other interests outside of driving.
Tom Jensen of FOX Sports first reported the news.
According to Jensen, reigning XFINITY Series champion Daniel Suarez is expected to replace Edwards for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sun., Feb. 26, 2017.
37-year-old Edwards began his full-time run in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2004 at Roush Fenway Racing. After 11 seasons, Edwards left Roush at the end of the 2014 season to join Joe Gibbs Racing aboard the No. 19 Toyota Camry, a fourth entry.
During his 12-year run at the sport’s pinnacle level, Edwards won 28 races, 22 poles and captured 124 top-five and 220 top-10s in 445 starts.
In addition to his accolades in Cup, he also captured the 2007 NASCAR XFINITY Series championship while driving for Roush Fenway Racing. Across all three NASCAR National divisions, he has 72 victories.
Edwards made his first NASCAR start in 2002 driving for Mike Mittler’s St. Louis-based MB Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Memphis International Raceway, where he finished 23rd after starting 16th. He earned his first NASCAR top-10 in just his third series start at Kansas Speedway finishing eighth.
Edwards’s unexpected retirement comes after the Colombia, Missouri native made the Champion 4 last season in the Cup Series. At Homestead-Miami Speedway this past November, Edwards in contention to win both the season finale and the championship, but crashed after contact with fellow title contender Joey Logano on a restart with 10 laps to go in the Ford EcoBoost 400.
Edwards settled for fourth in points, his sixth top-five points finish in 12 full seasons of Cup racing.
Just five years earlier in 2011, he and the now retired Tony Stewart tied for the championship, but Stewart won a tiebreaker for the most race victories that season. And in 2008, Edwards won a career-high nine races and appeared adamant to win the title, but a late-race crash at Talladega Superspeedway abruptly ended his title hopes, finishing second to Jimmie Johnson.
According to Motorsport.com, Edwards made the decision three weeks ago.
Joe Gibbs Racing will hold two separate press conferences Wednesday morning beginning at 10:00 a.m. NASCAR.com (video) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 will have additional live coverage of the events.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
