Friendly rivals

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / Cox News Service Carl Edwards (99) pulls out of the pits behind Jimmie Johnson (48) during Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500. Edwards says their rivalry is based on respect. Hampton, Ga. If there's an upside to a dreary rainy day at the race track, it's that the quality of the driver interviews seems to be greatly enhanced.

With no cars running and no racing to worry about, drivers tend to be more forthcoming and thoughtful in their answers.

That was the case at Atlanta Motor Speedway last Friday night, when Carl Edwards made a late appearance in the media center long after qualifying for the Pep Boys Auto 500 had been canceled because of rain.

One of the main subjects addressed was Edwards' relationship with Jimmie Johnson, who earlier in the day said Edwards was the driver he considered his greatest threat to a third consecutive Sprint Cup title. Edwards beat Johnson on Sunday, while Johnson finished second and increased his points lead over the second-place driver, now Edwards, to 183 with three races left.

If anyone was looking to find anything other than a truly friendly rivalry between the two drivers, they came to the wrong place.

Edwards said the story of his relationship with Johnson is best told by the photo on a special Carl Edwards edition crock pot, a photo taken at AMS in 2005 after he edged Johnson in a thrilling, last-lap, door-to-door run to the finish line to get his first Cup victory.

"If you buy a Carl Edwards crock pot, on the crock pot there's a picture of us in Victory Lane in Atlanta in 2005 and it's like a 'Where's Waldo?' " Edwards said. "There's this little Jimmie Johnson head sticking out from behind my shoulder, where he's coming up to pour his drink over my head and congratulate me.

"Somebody told me about it, so I went to my mom's house and I got there and I got the crock pot off the shelf and I was like, 'Sure enough, there's Jimmie.'

"The point is that he's the kind of guy that when you win a race or you have a good race with him and you beat him, he's the first guy over there to congratulate you. So, yeah, I want to beat him more than anything, but I probably won't be trashtalking him anytime soon."

Edwards also used the session to thank the man who helped him move from the short tracks of the Midwest to the highest levels of NASCAR. Mike Mittler has given several drivers, including Jamie McMurray and Justin Allgaier, their career breaks even as his own team continues to struggle to be a regular competitor in the sport.

"The true break in my career, the true giant step was running with Mike Mittler," Edwards said. "There's a guy who, because of the rules and how close NASCAR monitors the competition, he can afford to pay out of his pocket to go race a few truck races every year. If you don't have guys like that in the sport, it's very hard as a driver to make it, to hope to get the opportunity."

Edwards also acknowledged that he didn't realize how much he needed crew chief Bob Osborne until the two were separated for most of the 2006 season.

"You don't know what you've got until it's gone, and I probably do value that relationship more, and I wouldn't let Bob leave my team without the biggest fight," he said. "I'd do anything I could to keep him there knowing what I know now and being wiser like I am now."