‘Hey, Downwind!‘ Introducing Carl Edwards’ New Nickname

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards flies around these days in a Citation jet, but back when he first started flying, he bought a single-engine Saratoga that was purplish-pink in color.

And when he was learning the ropes of what it took to be a pilot, he made a mistake one day.

We’ll let him tell the rest of the story:

So I was flying in my little Saratoga; I’d gotten my pilot’s license and it was my first plane. I flew it all over the country. This little thing was great, and I landed for fuel in Dimmitt, Texas.

It looked like a good place to land on the map, but I didn’t think to check the windsock. So I landed downwind – I’m landing at 60 or 80 mph, plus a 20 mph wind – and I’m like screaming down this runway trying to stop.

I get to the end, and there’s a guy ready to take off in the correct direction, waiting on the taxiway in his crop duster. And I can see him looking at me like, ‘You idiot!’

He’s looking at me like, ‘Well, now what are you going to do, moron? You’ve got to turn around because I can’t back up!’

So I turn around, and taxi back in and beg these people for some fuel. And they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re NASCAR driver Carl Edwards!’ So the only guy that saw that landing was this one guy.

Like a year later, I was doing an autograph session here at Texas, and I hear from the crowd, ‘HEY, DOWNWIND!’

I was like, ‘No! He knows! Somebody knows!’

And he’s like, ‘I was that guy in that crop duster! You’re a terrible pilot!’

It was pretty funny. So I’m sure in the crop duster community, they laugh at me as a pilot.