Opie is trying to find his Chi??? OK I'm bored stuck at home, it's snowing and sleeting.
Edwards ready for next step in personal journey
DAVID POOLE
dpoole@charlotteobserver.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Carl Edwards is working on more than going fast in his No. 99 Fords these days.
For one thing, he’s seriously dealing with his chi. Or whatever they call that thing that’s supposed to keep you happy.
“I think there was a time last year where all of a sudden I’d wake up on a Monday morning and it was like, ‘Man, I am not really having that much fun,’” said Edwards, the driver of the No. 99 Fords for Roush Racing.
“‘I’m not working on being a better race-car driver, I’m working on my frustration or anger.’ …And I think that’s been a big step for me forward just in my life.
“This offseason I really focused on trying to just kind of let that go. I think that once you ... can give your energy to positive things and not be worried about exactly what went wrong, that kind of turns your world around. …Confidence is important, but it’s bigger than that. It’s your state of mind in general.”
Like, wow.
Edwards would certainly love to get his mojo working again on the track in 2006. After winning four races in his first full season of Nextel Cup competition in 2005, he didn’t win a race in 2006 and missed the Chase for the Nextel Cup after finishing third a year earlier.
It got rough at times last season, Edwards admitted Monday as the second week of Nextel Cup testing opened at Daytona International Speedway.
“There were times last year where I thought, ‘Man, what am I doing wrong here?’” Edwards said. “For me, once I realized that if I do everything I can and give the best effort I can, that’s what I’m to be satisfied with – not the result.
“If I blow a motor or wreck or make a mistake on something, you can’t dwell on that,” Edwards said. “You have to march forward and do the best you can. That’s why it feels so good to say, ‘Man, I’m not angry at anybody.’ I’m letting all of that go. I want to get to the point where I can just show up at the race track with a smile and feel like I’m prepared the best I can be.”
The “letting go” part is about his feud with Tony Stewart, which stems from their run-in at Pocono in July. Stewart swerved at Clint Bowyer’s car and wound up taking out Edwards in the process, and later that day Edwards turned Stewart’s car on pit road. They exchanged barbs afterward and the pot has still been simmering in the run-up to the 2007 season.
“What I did wrong was I got out of the car and made it a personal attack,” Edwards said. “I said some things I shouldn’t have said and obviously I really upset Tony. And so for that, I apologize. ...I’d do anything in the world for Tony, I think he’s a good guy. I hope that’s water under the bridge.
“To me, there are a lot of good things in life. I love what I do, and I don’t need to come into the Daytona 500, at hopefully my championship season, with a grudge.”
That's Racin website
Rendezvous Ridge Winery sits on land that has been in the Parsons family for a very long time. Fifty-six acres that backs up to Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest with a huge wooden house steeped in family history, that’s where Benny Parsons is from. Mama Julia, the great-grandmother who raised him, the Parsons family cemetery in Parsonsville, Stony Hill Baptist Church, West Wilkes High School, these are his memories.
Benny was a tiny child of five years old when his parents, Harold and Hazel, moved to Detroit to seek work, better pay and a way to support their children. Benny’s great-grandmother, Julia B. Parsons, was in her seventies and very attached to her small grandson so Benny was left with her. The family feared she would grieve herself to death missing him and as it turned out, Benny never left her.
Mama Julia and Benny joined Harold and Hazel in Detroit for six months in 1950 when Benny was nine years old. During their brief stay in the north Benny was sent by his mother to the market. Benny always gets a laugh when he recounts the story of that short but eye opening adventure into another culture. “I saw these nice tomatoes at this market one day, but I didn’t see anything to put them in. I went inside and said, ‘You have a poke to put these ‘maters in?’ Man, I was a real hick.” Mama Julia longed to return home to her familiar North Carolina mountains where everyone knew what a poke and good old "mater" was. She of course brought little Benny back with her.
Benny grew up in a house with no running water until he was ten and Silas Parsons finally figured out a way to get water to the house using a system based on gravity. Even then it was cold water and no electricity. When electricity was finally available Mama Julia still couldn’t afford it so it was just one more thing to be longed for by a child. Then, Benny was so ashamed to have his school friends know where he lived and with such an aged woman. Now, as a grown, successful man, he looks back and sees how blessed he was to be raised among so many good people. Benny says, “There were so many people in the Parsonsville and Purlear areas that cared about me. When I was growing up and I was out I would stay where darkness found me, usually at the homes of classmates or my other grandparent’s house. They didn’t have a lot of money either but they instilled values in their children.”
Benny was like any young boy growing up in the ‘50’s. He dreamed of cars and his future. His childhood heroes were stock-car racers Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly. His dream wasn't to play football or basketball, "It was to go around corners fast! Man, in Wilkes County, every kid worth his salt had a two-door coupe with two exhaust pipes and two carburetors! Cars were awesome!"
After graduating high school Benny ended up in Detroit with his parents who by then were owners of a taxi company. Benny worked in the family business and started racing in 1963 at Mt. Clemens Speedway in Michigan. Thus a long and prosperous career was launched by a poor, small town boy who cut his teeth on cold mornings and the inspiration of a great-grandmother who gave him all the love she had. Benny Parsons has multiple achievements on his resume including Nascar Winston Cup Champion, first person to ever qualify a stock car over 200 mph, Daytona 500 winner, named one of the 50 Greatest Drivers in NASCAR History, member of the International Sports Hall of Fame, winner of an ESPN Emmy and an ACE Award. But what Benny mostly has that won’t show up on any resume is family, both past and present.
Mama Julia passed away in November of 1969. She never saw the bulk of Benny’s accomplishments. She didn’t watch his children, Kevin and Keith, grow up or meet his granddaughters Emily and Libbie. She never heard of ESPN. But Benny knows she and his family are the reason he made it this far and now he returns to the land where he was raised. Family and roots are very important to the whole Parsons family. Remembering who you are and where you came from and the people who got you to where you are today.
Rendezvous Ridge Winery is just another stepping stone. It too is now part of the inspiration of a generation long gone and with that inspiration comes a strong desire to succeed. To be the best at what you do. Replacing an old family orchard, ten acres of a variety of grapes will yield fine wines for generations to come and pass along all the love, hard work, and spirit that Mama Julia passed on to Benny.