Charlotte, NC (AP) Carl Edwards and Ricky Rudd had very little overlap in their respective NASCAR careers.
Edwards entered the Elite Cup series in 2004 – only 67 races before Rudd ended his 32 -year career – the two therefore never had the chance to know each other.
But two things equalize Edwards and Rudd – when everyone decided to retire, both have disappeared from the Nascar scene and, Friday evening, they will return to their former race community as the Nascar renowned temple.
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Rudd made his first reappearance in 2024 when Roger thought attempted to compete in all the living winners of Speedway in Indianapolis for a photo on the track to celebrate the Brickyard’s 30th anniversary. Many of his former competitors have been shocked to see him in the brick courtyard; It was the first time that most have seen Rudd since his last race in the series of Cups in 2007.
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Rudd, who is not going on the race track because he does not think there is a role or a reason for him to be there, told the Associated Press that he had been surprised by the Warm reception he received in Indianapolis that day.
“Think about it, we went to 30 races, we went to the same cities, we stayed in the same- we called it the” Roaclot park “- so it’s like getting out of a neighborhood” , said Rudd, whose victory in 1997 was one of the 23 career cup victories in 1997.
“And you come back to this neighborhood and there are a lot of familiarities. By browsing the garage to Indy, it was really treated again with many of these guys. »»
Edwards suddenly retired after the 2016 season, at the age of 36, after losing a second opportunity to win a Cup championship with a controversial final of the title discovery season. He said to the AP that he had not called this retirement at the time because he left room to perhaps take a year-long break.
But just like Rudd, Edwards left Nascar in his rear view mirror. He was in the wind until he was named one of the 75 largest Nascar pilots, an event that was celebrated in Darlington Raceway in 2023. Edwards joined the Fox Sports TV stand for a game of The race of this day – where he turned out to be a spectacular broadcaster – and caught the public to what he had done in the past seven years.
And just like Rudd, he was amazed at the reception.
“I understand now when people say” Nascar is a family, “said Edwards at the AP. “I finally understand. I do. When I left, I really thought: “I completely give up that. I give up sport, the opportunity to drive and many friendships. I am shocked that Nascar invited me again in this way. For the first time, I really feel like it’s part of a family. »»
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Neither Edwards nor Rudd won a cup title, but they left memorable marks on Nascar.
Rudd was one of the toughest drivers of all time – he used adhesive tape to keep his eyes swollen and bruised open to ensure that he would not miss the Daytona 500 after having undergone serious injuries in a Wreck in the previous week – and its 788 consecutive cutting cut was a long -standing record of the NASCAR by the 797 of Jeff Gordon.
But what else would you expect from Rudd, who, as one of the five children, who grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, was a “used to the self-proclaimed emergency room”. He pretended to be Superman when he jumped from the roof at the age of 5, was the only child in town to put a pony in his backyard, and was so determined to do all the dangerous actions that his friends were afraid to do, he thought he would one day be a Hollywood stuntman.
Rather, he found his way in Nascar. He ran for small teams, for large teams, his own team – 10 different owners, in all. Rudd was one of the best runners on the road to his time and won six of his victories, including the Brickyard, driving for Rudd Performance Motorsports.
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Rudd was the recruit of the year of the 1977 Cup, ended a second best points in points in 1991, and scored at least a victory in 16 consecutive seasons, tied for the third longest sequence in history of the series of cups.
“You set your goals and it was really” tried to win each race “,” said Rudd. “I didn’t really look at the overview, so my career goal was always just to win every race I could.”
Edwards entered NASCAR to his financial peak – perhaps the most difficult moment in history to enter sport. Edwards was a substitute teacher trying to be a runner and distributed business cards on tracks that read: “If you are looking for a pilot, you are looking for me.”
Jack Roush gave him his break and Edwards went from trucks to the XFINITY series and finally in cup while capturing the public with backflips from his winning car.
He crossed the finish line at Talladega Superspeedway once to finish the event after his car sailed in the fence in the last round when he ran Brad Keselowski for the victory.
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On the track, he finally left Roush to join Joe Gibbs Racing for a better chance of winning an elusive cup title. He had lost the 2011 Cup in an equal breakdown against Tony Stewart. And he led the final in 2016 when a questionable late prudence implemented a final restart and that Edwards was destroyed.
And then he stopped.
Edwards simply moved away from a career that produced 72 victories in the three national series, and 28 were in the Cup and included Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500. But he also had two of the most cruel defeats in Championship, both in NASCAR System qualifiers.
Edwards occasionally appears by doing rescue and recovery work in his country of origin in Missouri, where he has long been run to present himself for a public service and does not exclude him. He is never totally transparent about the reasons why he really left Nascar – some will never be convinced that it was because he felt that Nascar deceived him by two titles – but he was always a person Extremely private and thus remains as it heads for the temple of fame.
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He does not offer much about the way he spends his days, he simply says that he is busy and prefers to speak more broadly about his career and his current life. He says that he plans to be on the track in 2025 and that he would be interested in television work.
One thing that Edwards, which is a pilot, revealed that he has become a serious sailor and captain (with a crew) his own ship abroad. He has built a boat in the past three years that he has intended to sail around the world with his family.
He is really happy.
“I thought I worked very hard and that I did all that and it was because of all my dedication and my perseverance,” said Edwards. “Now, the more I see at 45, after having lived a little more of life, it is simply that I was the most blessed person.
