Carl Edwards’ career sits among the sport’s great what-ifs, defined less by a lack of ability than by timing that never quite broke his way. That reality is why Denny Hamlin has often felt a kinship with him. Edwards came agonizingly close to a Cup championship, only to see it slip away in 2016 after a late caution reshaped the finale and left him fourth in the standings. That moment effectively closed his Cup chapter. Long before that, however, Edwards had already stepped away from NASCAR’s second tier.

Edwards’ final Xfinity Series start came at Watkins Glen in 2012, despite the fact that he had thrived in the series. When asked what prompted that decision, Edwards pointed directly to his 2011 championship duel with Tony Stewart.

That season grew with contrasting arcs. Edwards, driving the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, entered the playoffs as one of the most consistent drivers in the field. Stewart, meanwhile, barely scraped into the postseason. He reached the cutoff without a single win and openly questioned whether he belonged there at all.

However, everything changed once the playoffs began. Stewart won the opener at Chicagoland Speedway, a result that flipped his outlook. He followed it with another victory at New Hampshire, suddenly transforming from an afterthought into a contender.

As Stewart gathered steam, Edwards sensed the shift. While Edwards had built his campaign on steady top-10s and top-5s, Stewart’s resurgence introduced a new threat at the top of the standings.

Stewart did little to downplay it. He issued a warning to Edwards, who continued to rack up solid finishes without frequent trips to victory lane. “He’d better be worried. That’s all I can say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.” Stewart backed up those words on track, winning three more races, including the championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Throughout that same year, Edwards remained deeply involved in the Xfinity Series. He won eight races there, reinforcing how strong he was in the Tier 2 division. Yet when the season ended, he chose not to continue that dual role. In a 2016 interview, Edwards explained the turning point in his own words.

“What really stopped that for me was my battle with Tony Stewart in 2011. Here I was in the middle of the greatest battle I’ve been in of my career. I was having so much fun. I wanted to win that championship.”

He began to recognize the cost of splitting focus. Edwards described finishing Happy Hour in his Cup car, speaking briefly with crew chief Bob Osborne, then rushing off to climb into the Xfinity car. That routine forced a realization.

“I noticed I was getting done with Happy Hour in the Cup car, talking with Bob Osborne, my crew chief, for maybe five minutes and then rushing off to the Xfinity car. I thought, ‘What am I doing? I’m diminishing my opportunity to win this Cup championship.’ I did it for seven years full-time, almost 500 races straight. I felt like I got everything out of it that I could.”

When asked whether he ever considered returning to the Xfinity Series, Edwards did not rule it out entirely. He said he would have liked to secure a Cup championship first, then revisit the Xfinity schedule, focusing on the races he found most enjoyable.

What held him back was the same calculation that shaped his decision in 2011. He refused to compromise his Cup program, even if it meant leaving behind a series where he had once been at his best.

(WJHL) — Motorsports journalist and ETSU alumna Deb Williams joins Kenny Hawkins and McKenzie Kane to unpack the NASCAR antitrust lawsuit settlement. The three talk about the institution of evergreen charters and what the deal means for the future of the sport.

Later in the show, McKenzie and Kenny talk about the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner, ETSU men’s basketball, and Scottie Scheffler winning his fourth PGA Tour player of the year title.

Advertisement

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Nissan Motorsports & Customization Co., Ltd. (NMC) today announced new initiatives aimed at enhancing Nissan’s overall brand power through new motorsport activities and the expansion of the NISMO car lineup.

As part of the Re:Nissan product strategy, ‘heartbeat models’ are key to sparking emotion and define Nissan’s brand DNA. NMC strives to support this by showcasing the pursuit of performance in motorsports and driving passion in NISMO products through new business initiatives.

The pursuit of performance through motorsports
Under the motto “Road to track, track to road,” Nissan leverages technology and driving spirit cultivated through top-tier racing series such as Super GT and Formula E. Insights and innovations are pulled from the track and leveraged in the NISMO car lineup.

Nissan will continue to challenge itself in series like the Super Taikyu and expand into new types of racing.

NISMO car lineup: Emotion and excitement at the wheel
Continuing the success of the NISMO car lineup, Nissan aims to double the number of cars available globally, from five to ten. Nissan also plans to expand market availability of NISMO cars. Nissan aims to increase annual shipment volumes from approximately 100,000 units to 150,000 units by 2028, with overseas sales rising from approximately 40% to 60%. In pursuit of added customer value, Nissan will actively consider collaborations with external partners to expand its NISMO car lineup business.

Beginning from fiscal year 2026, Nissan introduce prototype vehicles for racing activities to accelerate technological advancements in both hardware and software development for racing purpose and car lineup expansion.

Heritage and restoration programs
The global auto restoration market is valued at approximately 500 billion yen and is projected to grow upwards of 1.2 trillion yen by 2032. NMC will grow its restoration, restomod, and parts sales businesses with an initial focus on expanding around the Skyline GT‑R R32, R33 and R34, with more vehicles and regional offerings to follow.

Yutaka Sanada, President and CEO of NMC, stated, “NISMO continues to elevate the excitement and innovation of Nissan vehicles. Moving forward, we aim to infuse our passion and driven excitement into Nissan’s other product lines.”

Through ongoing motorsports activities, expansion of customization, and growth of the heritage and restoration business, NMC will aims to deliver new excitement to Nissan and NISMO fans worldwide.

About Nissan Motorsports & Customization Co., Ltd. (NMC)
Founded in 2022, NMC formed through the integration of Nissan’s motorsports activities dating back to 1936, the birth of the NISMO brand in 1984, and the establishment of AUTECH JAPAN in 1986. Nissan’s philosophy of using motorsports as a way to develop people, technology, and cars drives our passion for innovation. NISMO inherits this DNA, continuously taking on new challenges, leveraging its expertise and spirit to enhance brand value.

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 can add the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to its list of steadfastly growing lap records. The ‘Vette team paid a visit to the track, which is near Toronto, Ontario, last month to prove once again that the twin-turbocharged, flat-plane V8 is king of the hill when it comes to daily-drivable supercars. With veteran racing driver (and Canada’s native son) Ron Fellows behind the wheel, the hot Corvette lapped the Toronto-area track in just 1 minute and 18.22 seconds, a number that smashed the previous record by nearly four ticks.

Base Trim Engine

5.5L V-8 ICE

Base Trim Transmission

8-speed auto-shift manual

Base Trim Drivetrain

Rear-Wheel Drive

Sprinting Through The Corners

That former record also belonged to Chevrolet, incidentally. Fellows himself set the previous production car benchmark in 2023 with a Corvette Z06. In that outing, he crossed the finish line in 1:22.16, the car’s naturally aspirated V8 screaming near its 8,600-rpm rev limit the whole time.

The ZR1 borrows a lot from the Z06, starting with its 5.5-liter LT6 V8 engine. But a pair of turbochargers and a host of supporting upgrades bring the V8 from its already impressive 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque to an unbelievable 1,024 hp and 828 lb-ft – numbers that exceed the three-times-as-expensive Lamborghini Revuelto, much less anything close to the Corvette’s $200k starting price.

The ZR1 is so blisteringly quick that Fellows beat his previous record by nearly two seconds – a mere seven runs into the session. The times got faster and faster from there, before the retired professional driver capped his day off with a 1:18.22 lap time, 3.96 seconds faster than the Z06. That’s an incredible achievement for a track that measures only 2.5 miles from start to finish. The track’s fast, sweeping layout and big altitude changes are a recipe for drama, which Fellows avoids thanks to his longtime familiarity with the Grand Prix layout – he hosts a professional driving school right there.

The Latest In A Long Series Of Track Records

By this point, the Corvette ZR1 is very familiar with the view from the top of the podium. In February, Chevrolet announced that its budget-priced supercar had captured five lap records at four different tracks: Watkins Glen, Road America, Road Atlanta, and Virginia International Raceway (where it took both the Full Course and Grand East Course layouts). Fellows added his name to the record-breakers list, applying a decal to a special ZR1 festooned with the car’s various feats – including its lap time at the Nürburgring, where the even faster, hybridized ZR1X punted the Mustang GTD out of top billing even without a professional racing driver behind the wheel.

Chevrolet

The Corvette family is clearly having a good time with its products, and we wonder how much longer it’ll be before it starts taking down even more expensive machines like the Czinger 21C, the other all-American supercar that just recaptured its Laguna Seca fastest lap from Koenigsegg. Given how much record-breaking the existing Corvette lineup is doing, we doubt it’ll be too long before a world-beating hypercar comes from the Chevy camp, exceeding even the power of the ZR1X.

Related

The Fastest Corvette Ever Made Came Out Over 35 Years Ago

Meet one of the greatest Corvettes ever made.

Source: Chevrolet

Richard Childress did not need to say a word to make his message clear. 

His appearance alongside Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris at the high-profile Army–Navy Game, an event also attended by President Donald Trump, served as a quiet reminder of where his influence still sits as NASCAR navigates one of its most uncomfortable moments in years.

For the 80-year-old NASCAR legend, the timing was hard to ignore. NASCAR recently settled its antitrust lawsuit with Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, agreeing to make charters “evergreen” and closing a case that had dragged the sport through months of courtroom scrutiny.

While the settlement brought relief for many teams, it left Childress in an awkward position after he was unexpectedly pulled into the proceedings.

During testimony, Childress was questioned about potential discussions involving the sale of Richard Childress Racing, information he believed was protected by a non-disclosure agreement and had never intended to disclose in court.

Subscribe to our NASCAR newsletter here.

Judge Kenneth Bell acknowledged Childress’ frustration, noting that the veteran owner “certainly thought it shouldn’t have been in their possession.” The moment further strained an already tense relationship between Childress and NASCAR leadership.

That tension escalated when leaked text messages from NASCAR president Steve Phelps became public.

In those messages, Phelps referred to Childress using offensive language, calling him an “idiot,” a “stupid redneck,” and suggesting he should be “flogged.” Phelps later testified that he apologized, but the damage had already been done.

One of NASCAR’s most powerful partners reacted swiftly. Bass Pro Shops, a cornerstone sponsor of the sport for nearly three decades, issued a blistering statement defending Childress and condemning the remarks.

Morris accused NASCAR leadership of disrespecting “one of the pillars of the sport” and warned that the comments were irresponsible toward sponsors, teams, and fans.

Childress’ public alignment with Morris, and by extension Trump, carried added weight. Childress has long been open about his friendship with the president, introducing Trump at a Charlotte campaign rally last year and hosting him in the Richard Childress Racing pit box during the Coca-Cola 600. Trump has repeatedly praised Childress, pointing to his success as proof of leadership and talent within motorsports.