A TV commercial for one of Edwards' sponsors features the Aflac duck driving his No. 99 Ford. Questioned
last week about the rear-end housing setup on his car -- something other competitors have commented on --
Edwards sarcastically said the car was so easy to drive he could put a monkey behind the wheel.
And on Wednesday afternoon at the Wachovia Center Atrium in uptown Charlotte, Lowe's Motor Speedway
president Humpy Wheeler used Princess the Back-Flipping Dog to highlight his choice to win Saturday night's
Sprint All-Star Challenge at the 1.5-mile track. Edwards' signature celebration after a win is a back flip.
Wheeler said his choice was a close call between Edwards and Kyle Busch, both of whom have won three races
this season.
"It's tough picking Carl Edwards over Kyle Busch," Wheeler said, "because Kyle's the hottest driver we've
got right now, but Carl's just done so well at similar tracks to Lowe's -- like Atlanta, Vegas and Texas --
I was just real impressed with how he ran during the practice sessions we had last week (at LMS).
"He's a combat driver. You've got to be a combat driver to win this race -- or real lucky. And I don't
think anybody's going to get that lucky Saturday night."
Busch was represented by a Doberman at Wednesday's news conference. Wheeler chose a pit bull terrier for
Tony Stewart and a greyhound for Jimmie Johnson, the other two drivers he considered strongly. But
Princess, a fox terrier, was the highlight of the show with a succession of back flips.
During a conference call with Edwards, who was at his home in Missouri, Wheeler brought the house down with
the comment, "Carl, you can't see this, but Tony Stewart just tried to bite Jimmie Johnson."
Edwards agreed that Busch would be his primary challenger.
"I think Kyle Busch will be my toughest competition," he said. "But it's hard to say. It seems like, at the
end of the race, the same guys always pick it up. I know Jimmie Johnson will be there. I think Dale
Earnhardt Jr. -- he has a way of running really well with these cars on the mile-and-a-halfs.
"I'd say those three guys are going to be really tough -- plus my teammate, Greg Biffle. He's mad right
now. He's angry. He wants to win a race after what happened the other night (when mechanical problems
knocked him from the lead at Darlington). I think for that reason he's going to be really tough."
Since he began announcing his picks in 1989, Wheeler has successfully picked the winner of 10 of 19
all-star races, including the first five. The renowned promoter has suffered through a dry spell, however,
since correctly picking Johnson to win the race in 2003.
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