Zak Elcock, NHRA Publicist, introduced Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards to the assembled media at the NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Ca. As he said, “The 2009 NHRA Pro Stock champion Mr. Mike Edwards”, the newly crown champion smiled.

“Doesn’t that sound good?” Edwards said.

Edwards didn’t just clinch a championship; he did it with an exclamation point.

Zak Elcock, NHRA Publicist, introduced Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards to the assembled media at the NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Ca. As he said, “The 2009 NHRA Pro Stock champion Mr. Mike Edwards”, the newly crown champion smiled.

“Doesn’t that sound good?” Edwards said.

Edwards didn’t just clinch a championship; he did it with an exclamation point.

He entered the event needing only to qualify to clinch, but at the end of the day on Saturday, he did so in the same fashion that he’s done for at least 16 times this season. Edwards qualified No. 1 in what could be his final event as a driver.

At least for two days, Edwards isn’t thinking about the future.

“I cannot begin to explain the incredible feeling that I am experiencing now,” Edwards said. “I can say words but they just don’t describe what I am feeling. You just sink it in because it is all real. It’s been worth the wait.”

For Edwards, the wait to be a champion again has been 28 years. He captured the 1981 crown in Modified eliminator and then the class was discontinued.

“I hope they don’t stop the class,” Edwards said. “That was a special time for me, I was 21 years old, and I thought I could get plenty of those [championships].”

Of all the years that passed since that monumental season, 2009 was different than any other. Edwards believed there was something special in the works for this team from the first final round of the season in Pomona.

“I believed we had picked up some over the winter but until you get out here and race against the best teams you really don’t know,” Edwards explained. “We knew we were going to be good, we just didn’t know how good.”

Edwards pointed out that confidence didn’t prevent his team from going that extra mile.

“There were times with our testing that we were doing burnouts in the morning before the sun had even come up,” he added. “We tested and tested and gave everything we had to try and achieve this. It’s a lot of hard work and it has paid off.”
 
Edwards leaned towards advice given to him in the early years of his Pro Stock driving career for inspiration. It was his late team owner,  John Kite, who suggested the way to become a champion was to surround himself with good people.

He believes that’s what the team did years ago and with the title, that objective paid off.

“We’re just a bunch of guys who got together a few years ago with a plan to give us the best opportunity, Roger and Ann Stull, and we decided to do it the right way,” Edwards said of his team owner and crew. “We started our shop there in Charlotte with Nick and Paul and Carl, and decided to do it the right way and this has been a long time coming. We all kept pulling at the right end of the rope and here we are two and a half years later living our dream. Then there’s been the support of my wife Lisa and my team.

“It’s all because of God and I give him the glory.”

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