The Roush-Fenway Racing driver made stops on the Larry King and "Ellen" shows, and then headed to Daytona Beach, Fla., with car owner Jack Roush to discuss safety concerns with NASCAR. Edwards said after Sunday's wreck that NASCAR would continue the harrowing restrictor-plate racing until "we kill somebody."
"It was really a good talk, and I think that we're all on the same page and that we want to do whatever we can to make these races as safe as they can be for everybody -- the fans and the drivers and all that," Edwards said.
Edwards doesn't pretend to be an expert, but the solution to him is clear when it comes to making racing safer around the fastest oval in the series. NASCAR uses the plates to choke the horsepower and slow the cars on the 2.66-mile oval. It forces the cars to run at about the same speed in one large pack.
If one car spins or even wiggles, many others have no place to go, and the often spectacular, seemingly inevitable crashes have come to be known as "The Big One."
"The bottom line is unless you take the banking out of that race track or we don't go race there, you've got this big problem trying to keep the cars apart, keep them slow," he said.
The Alabama superspeedway's history as the fastest track in the series can't be ignored or overlooked, Edwards said Friday, but "I'm hoping that there's something that we can do."
Edwards walked away with nothing more than a headache, but seven fans were injured by flying debris, and Edwards was highly critical of the situation when it was all finished.
The meeting, he said, left him hopeful that NASCAR might do something.
"I've just got to have faith that something will be done," he said.
Edwards also took the time this week to talk with Blake Bobbitt, the Alabama teenager most seriously injured in the crash. She sustained a broken jaw when hit by debris and had reconstructive surgery on her jaw. She was released from the hospital on Wednesday.
"I talked to her mom first because Blake's jaw is wired shut, so she couldn't talk much," he said. "(Blake) was upbeat about it. She was mumbling a little bit, but she seemed really cool. She's a 17 year old girl and I hope she comes out of this all right in all ways."
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WHERE THE RUBBER HITS THE ROAD: Goodyear will head back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway later this month for yet another test of its beleaguered tires.
The tires used during last year's race at Indy couldn't hold for long runs, and NASCAR was forced to call a caution every 10-12 laps to force teams to pit and put on a fresh set of tires. Goodyear has held several test sessions since to find a suitable compound, and now plans to return the week after the Indianapolis 500 for another session.
Brian Vickers, Reed Sorenson, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman spent two days at the track last week, but rain cut the session short. Goodyear went back this week for a one-day session with the same drivers, but Kasey Kahne replaced Sorenson as the Dodge representative.
Newman said he was able to run 18 laps Wednesday, which he called a "small gain."
"The tires are still not ideal," he said. "Last week it was 10 (laps) and you were (done). So it was a gain in number of laps, but the tire life itself is still less than a half of a fuel run."
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POOLE HONORED: David Poole, the Charlotte Observer's longtime NASCAR reporter, was honored as the first quarter recipient of the Spirit Award given by the National Motorsports Press Association. The honor came Friday, three days after he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Poole was honored for establishing a "Pennies for Wessa" fund that raised more than $10,000 to aid in the medical bills of a Kentucky family struggling to afford care for their 16-year-old daughter with spina bifida.
Wessa Miller gave the late Dale Earnhardt a lucky penny that he taped to his car's dashboard the day he won the 1998 Daytona 500. Poole wrote about the story, then followed up on it 10 years later. Upon learning of the Miller family's struggles, he established the fund and arranged for Wessa to attend the March race at Bristol.
Voting for the Spirit Award ended Thursday, the same day Poole was laid to rest in his North Carolina hometown.
Several NASCAR teams came to Richmond International Raceway with decals affixed to their cars in honor of Poole, who covered NASCAR for 13 years for the Observer. He was also host of "The Morning Drive" weekday show on Sirius NASCAR Radio.
All four Hendrick entries sported a Carolina-blue oval -- a nod to his alma mater, North Carolina -- with the initials "DCP." Tony Stewart used a logo on the Stewart-Haas Racing cars that has images of both a fountain pen and a microphone.
Roush Fenway Racing, Penske Racing and Richard Childress Racing were among the other teams with individualized decals.
At Richmond, Poole's regular seat in the infield media center was left vacant with a sign indicating it was reserved for him, and a moment of silence was planned Saturday night.
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SPEAKING: "I don't think he does, no. I think that's pretty obvious," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said when asked if he thinks Kyle Busch likes him. Busch was fired from Hendrick Motorsports when the team needed to dump a driver to sign Earnhardt.
