Happy Birthday, Nancy Sterling
The King of Concrete’s First Lady, Nancy Sterling got quite a birthday present today. Her son Carl Edwards took the pole for the Checker Auto Parts 400 at Phoenix International Speedway.
I don’t care if you like Carl or not, there’s just something cool about seeing his mom cheer him on. I’m a NASCAR fan and a frustrated sportscaster, not a gossip columnist, so I don’t have any idea who the girlfriend is. I just think it’s cool that Nancy is as into Carl’s accomplishments as he is while Edwards is still a bachelor.
It’s been a nice little run here for Cousin Carl, capturing the Busch Series title and his first pole of 2007 in the same week. It kind of takes the edge off of the little flare up with teammate Matt Kenseth a couple of week ago.
I think what we’re learning about Edwards is that he is human after all. Yes, he’s always giving his trophies away and does all kinds of humanitarian good works, but at the end of the day, he’s a competitor. Like all fierce competitors- he gets angry when he loses. REAL angry. Then he does what many really angry people do, he says and does stupid things.
It was interesting to get some comments from him on this subject in an video interview on NASCAR.com this week. He basically clarified where he was coming from in terms of standing up for himself when he thinks he’s been wrong. When asked if he was concerned he’d lose fans over this, he said "To (a region south of us) with them." Edwards added was content to have the support of family and friends.
It takes a thick skin to be a public figure, something that I know from first hand experience in a couple of arenas is not easy to come by. You know that unless you’re a wallflower, you’re going to get rocks thrown at you once in a while. All the popular drivers have a share of detractors that are as significant as their fan base. Look around and you’ll see that Junior, Gordon, Stewart and even Jimmie Johnson have "haters." Now "The Opie Taylor of NASCAR" is a part of the fraternity.
It sure helps to have family in times like these.
Happy Birthday, Mama Carl! Your boy is on a roll!
