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Edwards Denies Using Steroids

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2007

HAMPTON, Ga. - Responding to Internet speculation that has been circulating for a while, Carl Edwards said he is not doing steroids.

The only evidence is circumstantial: Edwards has developed a muscular build, and he has had some high-profile episodes of losing his temper, including confronting Matt Kenseth after last week's Subway 500 at Martinsville.

Asked if he is insulted by the conjecture, Edwards said, 'No, I'm not insulted. That's really a non-issue. I work out really hard. I do everything I can to be as healthy as I can, and I think that's pretty silly.'

Steroids are banned under NASCAR's substance abuse policy, and the sanctioning body has the authority to test for suspicion. Testing is confidential unless a driver fails a test and action is taken.

'The only time we discuss who we test is if the test comes back positive,' NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter said Saturday.

Edwards, who answered a question about the steroid speculation near the end of his media availability late Friday, has gained a reputation as a hothead.

Last year, he threatened to give Tony Stewart a 'whooping' over his car radio after Stewart wrecked at Pocono, and he rammed Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car after Earnhardt spun him out to win a Busch race at Michigan.

In recent weeks, Edwards has had two run-ins with his teammate Kenseth, and both were captured by television cameras.

'I definitely regret what happened, and hopefully everybody understands that it's just competition,' Edwards said about the Martinsville incident. 'I do the best I can, and when things don't go well, I might not be as happy as I am when things do go well. That's just me. That's how competitive I am.'

BIFFLE'S TAKE: Greg Biffle isn't taking sides in the feud between teammates Edwards and Kenseth, but he did give his opinion on the conflict.

'The moral of the story is that Carl was a little bit out of line, and I think we all know that and he's admitted that,' Biffle said. 'We just need to mend that relationship between him and Matt, and they need to race each other better on the race track, and that's what this boils down to.'

Biffle said that at Kansas, where Edwards and Kenseth first had an exchange after on-track contact sent Edwards into the wall, Edwards was at fault.

'Carl was three-wide with Matt, and they bumped and he Edwards got a fender into the tire,' Biffle said. 'That was Carl's choice to race three-wide at that point. Carl made the conscious decision to go out there and try to make that pass at that point in the race on the restart.

'Later, when he went out of the race for an unrelated reason, it had nothing to do with that at all and he was very upset with Matt.'

At Martinsville, Biffle said, Edwards also was at fault.

'I saw the whole thing - I had a front-row seat,' he said. 'Carl got into the corner a little too hot. He should have started slowing down sooner. If you've got a brake problem, you start backing up your corner so you don't use the guy outside of you to stop. They got together again on the corner exit, so it wasn't like, 'Sorry about that.' I think that upset Matt.'

ATLANTA DARK HORSE: Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya is back at the site of his first Nextel Cup top-five finish.

In March at Atlanta, Montoya started 16th and was in contention to win late in the race. Fourth on the final restart, he went high going into turns 1 and 2 and scraped the wall trying to pass eventual winner Jimmie Johnson. The damage slowed Montoya's car, and he was unable to challenge after that, but he finished fifth.

He'll start only 21st today driving the same car he had in March.

'I think we'll be OK,' Montoya said. 'I think we have a good race car, and we'll see what happens.'

Tony Fabrizio

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