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Kenseth and Edwards: teammates in name only. (LAT photo) MORE NASCAR PHOTOS ยป More Photos
In case there was any question about how Carl Edwards feels regarding the mood at Roush Fenway Racing following his on-camera dust-up with teammate Matt Kenseth live on SPEED Sunday night, the third-year driver put it to rest Tuesday during the weekly NASCAR teleconference.
"We've got to put all of the petty little stuff aside and go out and be the best teammates we can be. Because as long as we don't, we're going to get beaten by people who do," said Edwards, who raised a closed fist to Kenseth's face, while Kenseth was being interviewed by SPEED's Bob Dillner after Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. No punches were actually exchanged. " We've got great engines, great sponsors, all this stuff. And I talked to (Roush Fenway General Manager) Max Jones this morning, and he's so frustrated because so many people work so hard, and here we just are bickering and having these problems, and I can't do anything for anybody else."
Edwards said Sunday's confrontation with his teammate was the result of many factors, including carbon monoxide in his car during the race, frustration with contact from Kenseth during the race and long period of non-communication between the two, a problem that's been ongoing for more than half a year.
"Hendrick Motorsports, and those people that we compete against do a better job of having team spirit than we've done lately at Roush Fenway. I'm just as guilty of that as anyone," said Edwards, who sits fifth in Nextel Cup points and likely will clinch the NASCAR Busch Series championship this weekend in Memphis. "What led up to the deal that happened after the race of me confronting Matt, it was not a one-day deal. It wasn't just Sunday's on-track incident where I bumped into Matt and he bumped into me harder and I got madder all day. Matt Kenseth and I have not spoken I don't think Matt's voluntarily said two sentences to me in the last six months, you know. And that's just how it is. We just don't talk a lot. We don't know one another well enough. And it's my opinion that that's what's precipitated this stuff is that lack of communication."
"If you dish it out, you got to be able to take it," Biffle says of Edwards. (LAT photo) MORE NASCAR PHOTOS ยป More Photos
Edwards began the teleconference with an apology for
By the same token, he admitted there were fences to be mended in the Roush Fenway camp. "I've won three races this year in the Nextel Cup Series. When I win, people call and congratulate and people are happy for me. It's just the wrong people," said Edwards. "I've got Jimmie Johnson calling me every time I win to say good job. And my teammates aren't the ones doing that. And I'm just as guilty. I haven't been as happy for their successes as I could be."
While Kenseth has yet to publicly weigh in on the matter, his teammate Greg Biffle has, putting the blame for what happened Sunday on the track squarely on Edwards. "Carl came from a few rows back bombed down into Turn 1 and 2 and hit door slammed Matt up the race track, and then to make matters worse, while they were on the corner exit, ran him off into the backstretch wall," said Biffle, during an appearance Monday night on SPEED's "Inside Nextel Cup" television show. "And so not 'didn't mean to get down there and get into you' but 'now I'm gonna just finish you off all the way.' So, you know, if you drive like that if you dish it out, you got to be able to take it you would expect that Carl would figure if I'm going to drive like that, somebody is going to race me the same way especially a teammate. So, we go down to the next corner and Matt just bumped the back of him and moved him out of the way, and (Edwards) lost two or three spots and ended up back where he was and felt like he was treated unfairly in that situation, but I think the true colors are coming out. Carl came in there slammed Matt out of the way and they get going off the corner and runs him into the fence I saw the whole thing it was right directly in front of me it doesn't look good to all the people wearing the No. 99 and the Carl Edwards t-shirts."
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