by Sharyn McCrumb

NASCAR these days seems to have a mental image of the ideal race car driver: Someone who is not a Southern country boy with a heavy regional accent. A well-spoken, college-educated fellow in his twenties, 6‘2” and handsome enough to appear for magazine ads and store displays; a sober, even-tempered guy who is personable with fans, but also talented enough as a driver to hold his own on a speedway. And if he knew his way around a car engine, that would be nice, too.

So if Adam Edwards did not exist, NASCAR would be out there trying to invent him. He is all that, and you can take him anywhere-- including, he hopes, to a ride in Cup racing.

In spring 2007 the Virginia Tech grad (‘02) was finishing up his MBA on campus, teaching race car driving for the FastTrack School of Racing, and working to make it to the big leagues of NASCAR.

Stock car racing has come a long way since its early days as a regional sport, when mechanically-gifted good old boys like Bill Elliott could assemble a competitive race car in the family garage. Now in the minor leagues of racing, it is not unusual for parents to pay nearly a million dollars to subsidize their son’s entry into the sport. But Adam is trying to succeed the hard way: without millionaire relatives to grease the wheels. His efforts to pursue a career in NASCAR while earning his MBA have produced cinema-worthy adventures, occasionally reminiscent of his favorite movie Stroker Ace, in which Burt Reynolds plays a race car driver forced to drive wearing a chicken suit.

“I was the Falls Church redneck,” Adam says, indicating pictures of himself in jeans and a flannel shirt posing proudly beside his 1990 maroon Chevy S-10 Blazer. In high school he equipped the truck with a CB and a bullhorn, and cruised the streets of suburban Virginia.

Adam grew up in Falls Church in the 1980’s, fascinated by racing and mechanics. He became an Eagle Scout, did yard work for spending money, and later started an offset printing business, creating business cards and resumès for technologically-bereft adults. As a teenager he learned auto mechanics by working on cars at the Volvo dealership of Don Beyer, Virginia’s former lieutenant governor.

Those early earnings went toward the purchase of his first “project” car, a  1967 Seafoam green Chevy Malibu for which he paid $75. He learned auto mechanics just the way NASCAR’s  legendary good old boys did: one spark plug at a time.

During his senior year at Virginia Tech, Adam founded E Squared Racing to compete in the NASCAR Weekly racing series Pure Stock Division, assembling a pit crew of college friends under the direction of his fellow Hokie Brennen Shepard of Roanoke as crew chief. After graduation, Adam kept racing, winning Rookie of the Year, and finishing second in championship points, with two wins, 9 top tens and 14 top fives. He was named the Most Improved Driver, winning the DRP Performance Racers Award.

After graduation, he worked for Black and Decker, marketing DeWALT tools, and running show car and fan participation events. He also raced his own NASCAR Late Model Truck in a 22-race season, finishing fifth in championship points, as the top owner-driver team.

In  2003 he moved to Mooresville, NC in order to focus on intensive race training with current Nextel Cup drivers and crews, driving at Lowes Motor Speedway, learning and drafting with the best in the business. His evenings were spent at a state-of-the-art pit crew training facility, honing his skills as a tire changer and carrier and fueler-- all skills that proved to be important later when he was given opportunities to go over the wall in ARCA, Craftsman Trucks, and Busch races.

In the 2004 season Adam served as general manager and spotter for the NASCAR Busch series # 16 team, based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.     In pursuit of his dream, Adam has had his share of  “chicken suit” experiences. In 2004 he was spokesperson for the Nation Pit Crew Championship sponsored by Tyson Foods, a job that involved exhibiting a race car at shopping centers and handing out samples of cooked chicken. The chicken wagon was on display in rural Alabama when Adam heard of a local dirt track holding a race to benefit the medical fund of a sick child.

“If somebody will lend me a car, I’ll donate $10 for every lap I complete in the race,” Adam told the organizers of the race. 

Since he had never driven on a dirt track, Adam figured he’d be lucky to last a dozen laps, and the experience of racing would be worth the money. But lap after lap went by, and he was holding his own. He ended up finishing second in the race-- and contributing a lot of money to an ailing child.

Other chicken suit moments: in December 2005, he went to the speedway at Daytona to try out for the ARCA racing series, but testing was rained out. In March 2007, after paying thousands of dollars for a chance to drive in an ARCA Re/ MAX race in Lakeland Florida, he missed qualifying for the race by less than five-hundredths of a second.
    But sometimes courage and optimism can turn a “chicken suit” into a swan.

ARCA Team owner Andy Belmont recalls:  “Instead of sulking because he missed the race, Adam attended the drivers meeting, chatted with fans and signed autographs, and then during the race itself, he volunteered on the pit crew of the team’s other driver.”

Impressed with Adam’s skill and sportsmanship, Belmont offered Adam his big break: a chance to race an ARCA car for a number of races in the 2007 season. Balancing his grad school obligations in Blacksburg with the racing schedule, Adam spent the spring traveling across the Mid-west helping the team, and waiting for his first ARCA race as a driver.

What stands between Adam and a Hollywood ending to his racing saga is the team’s need for sponsors. You can race your car on a shoestring budget, but you can’t be competitive. Since a set of tires costs $850, and it takes several sets to finish a race, an underfunded team is sometimes forced to “start and park.”

But Adam Edwards isn’t discouraged by yet another obstacle. “I’ve worked all my life for this chance to race,” he says. “I’m a Hokie, and Hokies don’t quit.”

This article was featured in Virginia Tech Magazine's Summer 2007 issue. visit site

Sharyn McCrumb, M.A. VT ‘84, is an award-winning Southern writer, whose novel  St. Dale, is the story of a group of ordinary people who go on a pilgrimage in honor of racing legend Dale Earnhardt, and find a miracle. This Canterbury Tales in a NASCAR setting, published by Kensington Books of New York, won a 2006 Library of Virginia Award and AWA Book of the Year Award.