"I believe that was snatched": Carl Edwards looks back on his 2016 championship bid that ended in controversy

Modified Mar 14, 2025 11:32 GMT

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Carl Edwards recently looked back on his decision to retire in a conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. In 2017, Carl Edwards announced his sudden retirement from NASCAR at the age of 37. It was a decision which came as a shock to many, and the former JGR driver recently expanded on that.

It's worth mentioning that Edwards was in contention to win the 2016 Cup championship. But his hopes came undone after a late race caution, which eventually led to Edwards crashing out of the race in an attempt to block off a pass.

Speaking to Dale Jr. on his podcast show, Carl Edwards looked back on the aftermath of that season. He said:

"I wanted to win that championship, it's everything I'd worked for. That's the prize you want more than anything in the world and yes, I believe that was snatched. That's part of it. And that was very difficult. So I had to look and say, 'Okay, let's just go to the next year. Let's go to 2017. Let me just be real smart. Let me just think this through. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go and I'm going to continue. I'm going to put everything in my life, second, in the backseat, and I'm going to go start at Daytona and I'm going to drive the hell out of this racecar like I've been doing for 13-14 years and I'm going to run this thing all the way to the end and give everything I've got, another year of my life.'" [1:05:30]

He remarked that his head injury began to become a factor for him as well.

And soon, Carl Edwards began to realize that he might be giving up on a lot of things for another year of racing, which, could once again come undone because of a late race caution and the season being decided on just one restart. He continued:

"I went, 'Damn, I don't know if spending a whole year of my life and all the things you give up and can possibly give up for one restart. That's a big deal. You have to weigh that. So I guess, really disappointing, but it actually helped me to say, 'Hey this is the reality, this is how it could go and is it worth it to you?"

Carl Edwards came close to winning a NASCAR Cup championship on more than one occasion

Apart from the controversial circumstances in the championship race that led to his sudden retirement in 2017, Carl Edwards was on the verge of winning the title on two separate occasions prior to that.

The most well-known one was arguably his tie-breaker in 2011 with Tony Stewart. The SHR driver ended up winning his third Cup title with a win in the last race of the season. But despite him and Carl Edwards having the same amount of points, the championship went to Stewart because he had more wins (5) than Edwards (1).

Then there was the 2008 season when Edwards finished in second place behind Jimmie Johnson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led Edwards by scoring 6684 points while Edwards finished the year with 6615.

But even though Carl Edwards' NASCAR career ended without a Cup title, he's considered by many to be one of the sport's modern greats. He closed out his career with 28 wins in the Cup Series, 38 in Xfinity, and 6 in the Trucks.

His career and legacy were strong enough for him to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier in 2025.

About the author

Shaharyar is one of the most experienced NASCAR journalists at Sportskeeda, having also worked in the motorsports journalism industry for over 3 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and has previously worked with Essentially Sports.

In addition to watching as many races as possible and tracking all the storylines on raceday, he aims to be attentive and objective in his reportage by cross-referencing all the information he obtains with multiple sources. Shaharyar also tries to be empathetic with his coverage and understand the emotions of athletes and fans alike.

Although he admires Max Verstappen due to the hard work that has gone behind his recent dominance, he also has a soft spot for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari. Having covered NASCAR for quite some time, Shaharyar is resigned to the fact that it will struggle to eclipse F1 due to its old-school nature, though he believes the series has its own merits, just as F1 has limitations.

Shaharyar is also an indie filmmaker and his spare time is largely spent on that field either writing, directing, or editing a story or a project to make it come to life.

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Edited by Mitali