Carl Edwards doesn’t sound like a guy who’s dying to return to NASCAR

Many fans have held out hope that Carl Edwards would return and give their favorite team a boost, but that doesn’t appear likely.

Of all of the big name talent to depart NASCAR over the past few years, none was more surprising than Carl Edwards. Here was a guy with undeniable talent and drive, racing for one of the top teams in the sport. He nearly won the 2016 Cup Series championship until a late wreck doomed him, but he was considered a top title contender for 2017.

Except he decided in January of last year he wasn’t coming back, causing Joe Gibbs Racing to scramble and get Daniel Suarez into the No. 19 Toyota. The change happened to suddenly that NASCAR had to give Suarez a special exemption for the Clash at Daytona because everyone was expecting Edwards to be in that race.

By his own admission, Edwards has nothing concrete lined up. He just kind of … left.

Since then, it’s become a popular pastime to guess when he might return and where he’ll pop up. Edwards himself has fanned these flames on occasion, particularly late last fall when it sounded like he missed being behind the wheel. Still, there are many kinds of racing he could use to scratch that competitive itch, and he doesn’t necessarily have to come back to NASCAR at all.

We’re all going to have to accept that he might never return. In an interview with the Springfield News-Leader (as passed along by Jayski) about his induction into the Ozarks Area Racers Hall of Fame, he sure didn’t sound like he regretted his decision to leave the sport at all.

"“That was a pretty crazy pace there for about 15 years. I’m an all-or-nothing person, sometimes to my detriment. It’s taken me about a year to actually wind down. I’m just now becoming the friend and the person I should be to a lot of people that I basically didn’t spend a lot of time with for a long time. It’s an amazing opportunity and I’ve really been enjoying it.”"

The all or nothing part is telling. If Edwards were ever seriously contemplating a return, he;d throw himself into it the same way he approaches everything. He wouldn’t half-ass it.

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Without any special insight into the mind of Carl Edwards, we’re not saying he’d never revisit his NASCAR career. We’re just saying it’s not something that appears to be something he’s considering right now, and anyone hoping he’s going to ride to the rescue of their favorite team is probably going to be disappointed.