The excitement, the nervousness and the intense pressure of being in a tight championship race.
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It wound up being the biggest disappointment of his career, losing the final race and the championship to Tony Stewart. And losing it in gut-wrenching fashion — on a tiebreaker when Stewart beat him to the checkered flag in the season finale at Homestead.
But mostly, Edwards will never forget the exhilaration of being in the closest championship battle in NASCAR history.
“The happiest I have ever been and the most excited about racing I have ever been was in 2011, the last three or four weeks,” Edwards said. “It was so exciting. It just felt like I was in the middle of exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I want that, I want that every year. I want to go to Homestead with all that pressure.”
That is why Edwards left Roush Fenway Racing after last season and will race with Joe Gibbs Racing this year — to put himself in position to race for that elusive championship again.
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Edwards signed a contract extension with Roush during the 2011 season, but things were never the same. As the organization started to fall behind and struggle, so did Edwards. He plummeted to 15th in points in 2012 and failed to win a race. He won twice in 2013 but struggled during the playoffs and finished 13th in the final standings.
Last year, he won two races — giving him 23 for his career — and made it to the third round of the Chase but was never really a factor and wound up ninth in the standings.
He announced in the middle of last season that he would leave Roush at the end of the year to drive for JGR’s new fourth Cup team this season.
Edwards, 35, turned down an offer to drive for Gibbs in 2012. He couldn’t bring himself to leave Roush in the middle of 2011, when he was leading the standings and speeding toward the championship showdown with Stewart.
But with his last three-year contract coming to an end last year, he didn’t hesitate to make the move this time. Not with Roush seemingly in a free fall.
“I was not prepared to wait another three years to do something different,” he said. “I felt like, ‘Hey, if I’m going to make a change, I need to make it now so I can have a long period of being the best driver I can be.’”
Now Edwards enters 2015 with the same feeling he had in 2011. He compares it to his first full Sprint Cup season in 2005.
“I feel a little anxious and a little nervous about it, and that’s nice because I haven’t had that feeling for a long time, and it’s a motivator,” he said. “I would say I’m as focused as I’ve ever been and I’m as excited as I’ve ever been.”
And for good reason. Gibbs has won three Cup championships and Denny Hamlin made it to the championship race last year. Though the organization only won two races last season — one each for Hamlin and Kyle Busch — it is one season removed from a 12-win season. Former Edwards teammate Matt Kenseth won seven races in 2013 in his first season with Gibbs.
Expanding to a fourth team gives Gibbs more resources and the organization switched the crews chiefs on three of its four teams during the offseason. Edwards will be paired with veteran Darian Grubb, who led Hamlin to the championship race last year and beat Edwards for the title in 2011.
Edwards already is a big fan of Grubb. They tested together at Charlotte after last season and Edwards says that 90 seconds into the test, “we were communicating perfectly.”
“He is amazing. That guy is a real genius,” he said.
“I haven’t worked with Darian in the heat of battle yet but I have watched him from a distance and he seems very calm. He seems like he can communicate very well even when all the pressure is on. Everyone I have talked to says I am going to love working with him, that he’s just an amazing guy.”
Edwards says being part of four-car team, paired with three other elite drivers, also should help him. He admits he was not a good teammate at Roush but is ready to change that.
“I was kind of a everyman-for-himself driver, but I have learned over time,” he said. “… I have learned the value of what everybody contributes, so I’m excited to be part of a four-car team that is this stout.”
He also believes the new Chase format favors his team, allowing for growing pains and time for a new team to work out the kinks, like 2014 champion Kevin Harvick and his new Stewart-Haas team did last season.
“You can go 20 races and then hit your stride and still be a championship team,” Edwards said. “We feel like with this new format, there is not a lot of pressure at the start and we can go out and find our way.”
He is prepared to be patient and spend the first half of the season getting to know Grubb and his team and figuring what they need to succeed.
“If it takes a year, it takes a year, but I don’t think it will take that long,” he said. “I think we will be battling for the championship this year.”
So do others. The recent success of other first-year teams — Kenseth in 2013, and Harvick and Ryan Newman in 2014 — makes Edwards a trendy pick to win the Chase this year. Harvick, who won the title in his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing, recently picked Edwards as the early favorite.
“I think Carl is probably going to have a lot of momentum,” he said.
“I think he and Darian will be a really good mix,” Kenseth said of his new/old teammate. “Carl, as everyone knows, is capable of winning races anywhere on any given week. He has a ton of talent and is a championship-caliber driver with a championship-winning crew chief.
“I don’t see why not.”