Carl Edwards suddenly retired after missing out on the Cup Series championship in 2016. Many have pointed to this loss as the reason for his departure, but he has revealed that he was actually grateful it happened.
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The reason, as Edwards revealed during his Hall of Fame induction speech, is that losing the championship to Jimmie Johnson allowed him to take a deeper look at his life.
"That restart didn't work out," Edwards said about the crash in 2016 that ended his championship race. "The theme of this is gratitude, and this is going to sound strange, but I'm so grateful that we didn't win that championship. I'm so grateful.
"Because it gave me time to go home and think about a few things. I looked at my career. It was beyond my wildest dreams. I mean, beyond my wildest dreams.
"I didn't know my kids. And because of brave men like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other athletes, I was keenly aware that there are real risks to hitting your head over and over. I said, 'Hey. This season's done. I'm gonna move to the next one.'"
"I'm so grateful that we didn't win that championship."
Carl Edwards on that remarkable 2016 season and his special relationship with Joe Gibbs. pic.twitter.com/KYTX89ExhG
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 8, 2025
Of course, deciding that he was done with NASCAR was only part of the process. Edwards also had to inform Coach Joe Gibbs, his boss and the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing.
This conversation could have gone multiple ways. Coach Gibbs could have been upset or mad, but that is not what happened. He provided the support that Edwards needed at the time.
"You jumped up from behind the desk," Edwards said while looking at Coach Gibbs, "and you said, 'This is important to you. I got your back, and I'm going to make this happen for you.' You didn't have to do that."
The rest — as they say — is history. Edwards went back to Missouri and disappeared from the spotlight for several years. JGR moved forward first with Daniel Suarez and then with Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota.
This 20-minute speech in Charlotte ended with the story of the 2016 season and Edwards' sudden retirement. Yet it featured so many more details that NASCAR fans would not have otherwise known.
The Missouri native covered several important topics, including how doctors had told his mother that she would never have children. His father was not supposed to live beyond the age of 30 due to a heart condition. Both proved the doctors wrong.
The willingness to fight continued with Edwards, who famously passed out business cards in the NASCAR garage while working as a substitute teacher. His friend Carl Giacchi once focused more on a race than letting Edwards know that he had suffered one of the most painful eye injuries known to man after an errant wrench toss.
The overarching theme of the speech — only 35 words of which were on the teleprompter according to NASCAR — was gratitude.
It didn't matter if Edwards was talking about family, racing, injuries, or heartbreak. He just wanted to let everyone know how grateful he was for everything in his life — even losing the championship race.
