NASCAR's Carl Edwards flying high to better life

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Edwards’ current residence in Columbia, Mo., was misidentified.

BOSTON — NASCAR driver Carl Edwards tries to have a normal life in an abnormal profession.

This explains why, on a hazy New England day, Edwards’ Cessna Citation CJ3 is out over the Atlantic, approaching Boston’s Logan International Airport and runway 22R. A pilot since high school, Edwards lands the plane expertly, the touchdown soft and centered.

Edwards is flying in from Concord, N.C., in the early afternoon for the next phase of a busy Tuesday. Already, he has been in morning debriefing/planning meetings at Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters in Huntersville, N.C., and he has been fitted for a seat in the Toyota Camry he’ll race at Daytona International Speedway on July 2.

Edwards’ schedule includes three hours in Boston, making several public appearances to promote the July 17 Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Not long after nightfall, Edwards will be home in Columbia, Mo., a daunting list of tasks completed in about 10 hours, thanks to the Cessna.

Edwards, 36, is far from the first NASCAR driver to own and pilot a plane, but he might be one of the most active in the sky lanes. Since buying the CJ3 two years ago, Edwards has logged 850 flight hours. He flies to every Sprint Cup weekend except the ones at Kansas Speedway, which is about a two-hour drive from his home.

Carl Edwards still chasing elusive championship

A significant investment (new CJ3s sell for about $7 million), the plane hit the pocket of the notoriously thrifty Edwards hard, but the positive numbers on the other side of the equation made the purchase work.

“I could do everything I need to do without a plane, but I literally would spend my life in an airport (flying commercial airlines),” Edwards told USA TODAY Sports. “This plane saves me about a hundred days a year.”

And most of those days are spent at home in Columbia, where Edwards lives with his wife, Kate, and their children, Anne and Michael.

“Days like today, with multiple things going on, there’s no way I could do it without a plane,” Edwards said. “The biggest thing for me is I get a little bit of downtime. I don’t feel like I’m in a constant state of hurry.”

The Cessna is Edwards’ fifth plane, counting an aerobatic stunt plane that he owned for a few years. Flying is both work and hobby for Edwards, who traces his love for planes to his childhood, when he and his father, Mike, built models, a pastime that ultimately led to the family taking a flight in a rental plane when Carl was 8.

“It was the greatest thing ever,” he said.

Edwards got his pilot’s license in high school. He had been racing cars but also had his eye on being a military pilot, maybe a fighter jock of the skies.

He moved faster in racing than in the air, however, and, by the age of 25, he had a full-time ride in the Sprint Cup Series with team owner Jack Roush. That resulted in his first plane, a small single-engine.

That also was no small purchase for Edwards, whose thriftiness — OK, some simply call him cheap — was somewhat legendary as he arrived on the shores of big-time auto racing. Retired driver Mark Martin, an Edwards teammate at Roush, once said of him, “Hey, the kid won’t even buy cable!”

ADVICE AND SUPPORT

Edwards grew up like many racers. He had everything needed to be a success in the sport — talent, skill, daring, contacts. Everything, that is, except the thing most don’t have — money.

Veteran stock car racer Ken Schrader, Edwards’ cousin, played a role in the young driver’s early racing exploits. As a teenager, Edwards spent time in Schrader’s North Carolina racing shop.

“He came down and helped us for a while in the shop and then came back,” Schrader said. “I asked him what he was doing. He said, ‘I’m down here, and I’m going to wind up driving your ARCA car.’ I said, ‘No, you’re not. I’ll drive it or somebody who has a sponsor will.’

“I told him to go back home and race. He said, ‘I don’t have any money.’ I said, ‘Guess what, nobody does when you start doing this.’ ”

Schrader loaned Edwards an old school bus that Schrader had modified into a race-car hauler. Edwards used it for a while, and Schrader eventually told him to keep the vehicle and, when he sold it, to put the money toward his racing efforts.

Success at several levels of short-track racing earned Edwards a chance to drive for owner Mike Mittler’s Camping World Truck Series team in June 2002. He finished 23rd at Memphis Motorsports Park in his debut on June 22.

“After that first truck race, my part of the purse was about $1,200,” Edwards said. “I remember having that money and going to Wal-Mart and getting a buggy and just stopping to look at everything spread out before me in the aisles. I thought, ‘I can’t believe this.’ ”

MONEY MATTERS

The money came bigger and faster as Edwards moved up to Roush’s team in 2003. Still, Edwards hid dollars from himself.

“I always worry about money,” he said. “My first year at Roush — the net amount I made was all in the bank except for $8,000. I had spent only eight grand all year. You worry about it. You don’t think it’s actually going to continue. It’s like every race car driver.”

Edwards said he “borrowed” a table and chairs from Roush Racing’s break room to give him a place to eat at home. “And,” he said, “before I got a plane I drove everywhere — used to sleep in my car at truckstops. I was going to save every penny I could.”

Edwards still lives in his childhood home — a nondescript three-bedroom in a Columbia subdivision. Nothing fancy. Frugal Carl.

Edwards sees life in Columbia as a Midwestern diversion from the hurried NASCAR lifestyle. He is open to fans and competitors and other fellow travelers while with the racing circus, but he is intensely private at home and looks upon Columbia as sanctuary for his family.

Unlike the situation with several other top drivers, Edwards’ wife (a physician at the University of Missouri Department of Physical Medicine) and children are rarely seen at racetracks and almost never make pre-race appearances along pit road. His children are not along for the ride, Edwards says, and they deserve to grow up without scrutiny from the racing masses outside the busy bubble of NASCAR.

So the Cessna delivers Dad almost to their door at workday’s end. There, Edwards is more or less a regular Missourian, playing with the kids, running a combine on the Edwards family farm, riding his bicycle over hill and dale.

And watching the bank balance.

Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree