Edwards Films Music Video, Hopes For Chase Rebound

Carl Edwards has added another credit to his growing list of off-track accomplishments: morning talk-show host, game-show guest, television analyst and even a cartoon voice-over artist.

Now, he's a country music video star.

Edwards recently filmed a video for country star Sara Evans' latest release entitled -- inappropriately for a race car driver -- "Slow Me Down." He plays the part of a former love interest being dumped by Evans, who hails from Edwards’ native home state of Missouri.

"I had never met her before," said Edwards. "Sara and her group thought it would be fun for me to be part of it. I run into people all the time who talk about Sara Evans. I imagine it's probably true for her, too. It was a neat thing to let me part of something with her. It will be neat for the people in central Missouri to see two central Missouri folks in that video."

Edwards spent an entire day last month filming the video with Evans in Nashville. There is no reference to racing in the song and he is not identified as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver. Edwards wears a black suit and gray shirt with an open collar, not his No. 99 racing suit.

"Part of the reason they had a race car driver in it was it's a little bit tongue-in-cheek," said Edwards, referring to the 'Slow Me Down' title. "It may catch some people off-guard. They'll think, 'He looks familiar,' but they might not have a clue who I am.

"We don't get along very well in the video. She finally realizes 'This is it,' and walks out on me."

The most difficult aspect of acting for Edwards was having to shoot multiple scenes of a couple arguing and bickering.

"After every take, I'd have to apologize to her and say I was sorry," Edwards said. "We ran out of things to argue about. It looks like we're fighting. Some of it was, 'Hey, I really like blueberries in my pancakes. I can't believe you didn't put blueberries in my pancakes!' We were just trying to come up with things to argue about.

"That kind of stuff is fun. It's different, it's something I'm not used to. I always learn something. I never imagined doing things like that."

Unfortunately for Edwards, his No. 99 Ford has mirrored the lyrics to Evans' car by slowing down during the first three weeks of the Chase. He finished the 26-race regular season as the Sprint Cup points leader after winning the final race of the regular season at Richmond,. When the points were reset, Edwards began the Chase as the fifth seed, nine points behind leader Matt Kenseth.

Edwards moved up to fourth with finishes of 11th and ninth in the first two races, but plummeted to 11th -- nearly out of contention for the title -- when a broken rear hub relegated him to a 35^th-place finish last weekend.

"We're going to have to perform perfectly," Edwards said of the remaining seven races. "We can't have any equipment failures, and (the Chase leaders) are going to have to have trouble. At the end of the day, those top three guys are extremely fast. So we have to beat them with our racing knowledge, not pure speed."

Even though the championship is now a longshot, it has still been a good bounce-back season for Edwards, who failed to win a race or make the Chase in 2012 after losing the championship in a tie breaker on the last lap of the final race at Homestead in 2011.

"Winning races has been the best part," said Edwards, who also won at Phoenix in the second race of the season.

There is no place where Edwards wants to win more than Kansas Speedway, where he has yet to win a Sprint Cup race. He qualified second last spring, but finished a disappointing 17th.

"That race is special to me," he said. "If I have any shot at winning it, I'm going to pull out every stop I can to win it. I'm willing to take more risk there than any place we go."