Edwards to skip Nationwide race at Road America
Carl Edwards will skip the Nationwide Series race at Road America to focus on the Sprint Cup event at Infineon Raceway.
The decision to skip Saturday's race in Wisconsin was announced after Edwards qualified 23rd on Friday. He had been scheduled to fly to Road America and miss Saturday's two practice sessions in Sonoma.
Now Billy Johnson, who led Nationwide practice in Edwards' car, will race Saturday. It will snap Edwards' streak of 210 consecutive starts - the longest active streak in the Nationwide Series.
''I think Billy will do a great job,'' Edwards said. ''In the end, this puts us in the best position with both teams to perform well, so I'm grateful to be able to make the change and I feel like we are doing the right thing.''
Edwards, the current Sprint Cup points leader, had planned to rely on Marcos Ambrose's setup if his Roush Fenway Racing Ford struggled at Sonoma. He was scheduled to miss both practices at Sonoma.
Edwards said he called the sponsor of his Nationwide car and asked if Johnson could replace him in the race.
''I think this shows you just how much our sponsors and our team are able to work together and change things on the fly,'' added Edwards. ''We felt like as a team that we needed more practice on the Cup side, so I called the CEO of Fastenal, Will Oberton, and without any hesitation, he said, 'Do what you need to do to have the best result and we are behind you 100 percent.'
''It just shows that Fastenal is truly behind our whole Roush Fenway team, and we have a great relationship to be able to make this change.''
