Carl Edwards details new passion after NASCAR career

When you spend most of your life at 200 MPH, what do you do when that stops? Carl Edwards turned towards sailing of all things. After his NASCAR career, Edwards decided he wanted to his the high seas.

What is a NASCAR driver to do after retirement? There are so many things. We know that Carl Edwards has his pilot’s license and enjoys flying. But that isn’t the new hobby he picked up after 2016.

Instead, as he told Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Dale Jr. Download, Edwards went sailing. A very interesting turn from the Cup Series.

“No and I still don’t know much about sailing. I left racing and we can talk more about that to any degree that you want. But I fell in love with this idea of the ocean. I don’t know where that came from, I mean, I grew up in central Missouri. I didn’t see the ocean until I was maybe 21. So, had all this free time. I was like, ‘Alright Kate, we’re going to learn to sail.’ And she said, ‘Fine.’

“So, we went to this sailing school and I’m serious, the first lunch break, we went up to the hotel room and almost got divorced, it was the biggest argument ever. I was like, ‘This is my dream, we have the time, let’s go on a boat.’ She said, ‘This is crazy, I hate it. The boat’s leaned over, it’s awful.’ And so Kate said, let’s buy a motorboat that was safer because there wasn’t sailing involved and I didn’t know anything about it. We bought this boat over in Europe and my son and me and two guys, we came across the Atlantic, it was the most amazing…”

Carl Edwards went across the Atlantic with his young seven-year-old son. He said that it was one of the best things he ever did. Even if he didn’t sail, he made the trip on a little boat with a small crew. And you can’t recreate that memory he has forever now with his son.

Carl Edwards explains why he stepped away from NASCAR

Not that it was any secret or anything, but Carl Edwards confirmed in his conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. that the 2016 championship race was why he stepped away. That race and the late caution in it were the factors that led to his retirement.

That entire episode is fantastic. Listening to Edwards vent and open up about the frustrations and successes that he had as a driver is invaluable. It gives us a look into how, perhaps, other drivers feel about the sport.

NASCAR can’t afford to push stars out of the sport. It simply can’t. When that generation of drivers retired in the mid to late 2010s, Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Edwards, and others – it was a big hit. Not all of those drivers left because of officiating but that exodus hurt the sport in many ways.

Carl Edwards will be on the broadcasts for the Prime Video races this summer. NASCAR fans will get to see a lot of him this year on TV. But not behind the wheel.