I will be smiling I guarantee it.”—Carl Edwards quote from October 2nd, 2008 Podcast

This is one of the weekends that I always fear for some reason. Maybe it’s the fact that restrictor plate racing has never been the forte at Roush Fenway. On the other hand, maybe it’s just the risky, tricky track itself that causes “The Big One” and such things. Don’t get me wrong, I like ‘Dega and all the excitement it brings as a spectacle to racing. But, as they this weekend is just a crap shoot.

Carl Edwards said in his weekly Podcast for this week that he would be happy and just fine with a top 10 finish this weekend. This place can break you in one quick second. It’s a place where a lot of points can be lost.

Here is how Carl has finished in the past at ‘Dega. In 8 starts at the track, he has only 1 top 5 and 3 top 10’s. His average finish is 24th. Earlier this season when they made their stop at ‘Dega, the 99 didn’t have such a great race. So, a top 10 finish would be amazing!

With the way Carl has been running this year in the Cup series, I think we may see a little bit of a change, more great things happening for the plate program. I hope it has spread over into the plate program! The 99 team has found some confidence and so has Carl in the plate racing, which showed in both the NNS race and the Cup race at Daytona in July. Best performance by far! To be honest, never thought he had it in him, since they never focus on working on preparing for those races like the others, not meaning they don’t want to do well!

So, good luck! Hope your race turns out great! Go 99!