By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Carl Edwards and Ricky Rudd had very little overlap in their respective NASCAR careers.
Edwards only entered the elite Cup Series in 2004 — a mere 67 races before Rudd ended his 32-year career — so the two never got a chance to know one another.
But two things tie Edwards and Rudd together — when each decided to retire, both essentially vanished from the NASCAR scene, and, on Friday night they will return to their old racing community as inductees of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Edwards and Rudd are among five being celebrated Friday night as the newest members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Rudd made his first re-appearance in 2024 when Roger Penske tried to wrangle all living Indianapolis Motor Speedway winners for a photo at the track to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Brickyard. Many of his former competitors were shocked to see him on the Yard of Bricks; it was the first time most had seen Rudd since his final Cup Series race in 2007.
Rudd, who doesn’t go to the race track because he doesn’t feel there’s any role or reason for him to be there, told The Associated Press he was surprised by the warm reception he received at Indianapolis that day.
“Think about it, we went to 30 some races, went to the same towns, stayed in the same — we called it the ‘trailer park’ — so it’s like moving out of a neighborhood,” said Rudd, whose 1997 Brickyard victory was one of 23 career Cup wins.
“And you come back to that neighborhood and there are a lot of familiarities. Walking through the garage at Indy, it was really neat reconnecting again with many of those guys,” Rudd said.
Edwards abruptly retired after the 2016 season, at the age of 36, after losing out on a second opportunity to win a Cup championship with a controversial title-deciding season finale. He told the AP he didn’t call it a retirement at the time because he left himself room to possibly just take a one-year break.
But just like Rudd, Edwards left NASCAR in his rearview mirror. He was in the wind until he was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest drivers, an event that was celebrated at Darlington Raceway in 2023. Edwards joined the Fox Sports television booth for part of that day’s race — where he turned out to be a spectacular broadcaster — and caught the audience up on what he’d been doing the past seven years.
And just like Rudd, he was astonished at the reception.
“I understand now when people say ‘NASCAR is a family,”’ Edwards told the AP. “I finally get it. I do. When I walked away, I really thought ‘I’m giving this up completely. I’m giving up the sport, the opportunity to drive and a lot of friendships.’ I’m shocked that NASCAR invited me back in this way. For the first time, I truly feel like it is part of a family.”
Neither Edwards nor Rudd won a Cup title, but they left memorable marks on NASCAR.
Tough as they come
Rudd was one of the toughest drivers of all time — he used duct tape to keep his swollen and bruised eyes open to ensure he wouldn’t miss the Daytona 500 after suffering serious injuries in a wreck the week before — and his 788 consecutive Cup starts was a longtime NASCAR record broken by Jeff Gordon’s 797.
But what else would you expect from Rudd, who as one of five kids growing up in Chesapeake, Virginia, was a self-proclaimed “emergency-room regular.” He was pretending to be Superman when he jumped off the roof when he was 5, was the only kid in town to ride a pony in his backyard, and was so determined to do all the dangerous actions his friends were scared to do, he figured he’d one day be a Hollywood stuntman.
He instead found his way into NASCAR. He ran for small teams, for big teams, his own team — 10 different owners, in all. Rudd was one of the best road racers of his time and earned six of his victories, including the Brickyard, driving for Rudd Performance Motorsports.
Rudd was the 1977 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, finished a career-best second in points in 1991, and scored at least one win in 16 consecutive seasons, tied for the third-longest streak in Cup Series history.
“You set out your goals and it really was ‘Try to win every race,’” Rudd said. “I didn’t really look at the big picture, so my career goal was always just to win every race I could.”
Edwards the Enigma
Edwards entered NASCAR at its financial heyday — maybe the toughest time in history to break into the sport. Edwards was a substitute teacher trying to be a racer and handed out business cards at tracks that read: “If you’re looking for a driver, you’re looking for me.”
Jack Roush gave him his break and Edwards climbed from Trucks, to the Xfinity Series and finally Cup while captivating the audience with backflips off his winning car.
He once ran across the finish line at Talladega Superspeedway just to complete the event after his car had sailed into the fence on the final lap as he raced Brad Keselowski for the win.
On the track, he eventually left Roush to join Joe Gibbs Racing for a better chance to win an elusive Cup title. He’d lost the 2011 Cup in a heartbreaking tie-breaker to Tony Stewart. And he was leading the finale in 2016 when a questionable late caution set up a final restart and Edwards was wrecked.
And then he quit.
Edwards just simply walked away from a career that produced 72 wins across the three national series, and 28 were in Cup and included the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500. But he also had two of the cruelest championship defeats, both in NASCAR’s playoff system.
Edwards occasionally pops up doing rescue and recovery work in his home state of Missouri, where he’s long been courted to run for public office and doesn’t rule it out. He’s never totally transparent about why he truly left NASCAR — some will never be convinced it was because he felt NASCAR cheated him out of two titles — but he’s always been an extremely private person and remains that way as he heads into the Hall of Fame.
He doesn’t offer much about how he spends his days, he just says he keeps busy, and prefers to talk more broadly about his career and current life. He says he plans to be at the track some in 2025, and that he’d be interested in television work.
One thing Edwards, who is a pilot, did reveal is that he’s become a serious sailor and captained (with a crew) his own ship abroad. He’s been building a boat the last three years that he intends to sail all over the world with his family.
He’s truly content.
“I used to think that I worked really hard and I did all this stuff and it was because of all my dedication and persistence,” Edwards said. “Now, the more I see at 45 years old, after living a little bit more of life, it is simply that I was the most blessed person on early. All the pieces fell into place for me to get to do something that I only dreamed about. I’m truly just realizing how fortunate I am.”