Behind the Story

One guy milks 125 miles from a single gallon. The other averages about 4.5. But Carl Edwards and Jack Martin were fast friends.

Bob Donnan

Carl Edwards picked up some new tricks while hyper-miling.

For the life of me, I have no idea how a race fan—or any sports fan—couldn't like Carl Edwards. For a man who has won a NASCAR Nationwide Series title, sixteen Sprint Cup races, dated Olympic medalists and appeared half-naked on the cover of multiple magazines (including ours), he has somehow managed to remain true to his Columbia, Missouri roots a short track racer who could also substitue teach if the phone rang.

I also have no idea how anyone couldn't like Dr. Jack Martin, professor at Appalachian State and champion hyper-miler. The man looks like your standard mountain college prof, consistently dressed down in a t-shirt and unbuttoned cotton over shirt with a mustache, bushy hair, all sccented with an infectious laugh.

So when we convinced the two to get together for our 2009 NASCAR preview issue, all I had to do was get out of the way and let them start talking.

The idea behind The Mag piece was to get preseason Cup title favorite Edwards together with defending "Tour to the Shore" hypermiling champion Martin to talk about how they each improve their mpg's behind the wheel.

For Martin that means driving his dirty little Honda Insight Hybrid, which already touts a nice rating of 80-something miles to the gallon. Martin squeezes nearly 130 mpg out of it. For Edwards it meant sliding into the cockpit of his 800-horsepower and decidedly non-hybrid number 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, which averages somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5 miles per gallon. His goal was to find another one mpg late in a race when pit strategy calls for it.

Don't laugh. Edwards won four races last year by easing up with the right foot when others didn't.

Bob Donnan

We put them in a 2010 street version of the Fusion (though it was a hybrid) and had Martin make the five-mile drive from Roush Fenway Racing HQ over the Lowe's Motor Speedway. As he kept the mpg meter pegged at 60+ he talked about drafting on the interstate and accelerating into turns and gliding down straights&and Edwards was admittedly shocked at how similar it all sounded to his strategy to stretch his gas at places like the Texas Motor Speedway.

Then Edwards announced that Martin was the slowest driver he'd ever seen and made the good professor give up the wheel.

Though they spent less than two hours together, Carl and Jack became fast friends. Edwards, a shrewd investor, was fascinated to hear that Martin also works as an advisor to multiple energy-conscious businesses and pulled the professor aside to talk about sinking money into wind farms back home in Missouri. They are both avid cyclists and talked about two-wheel rides more than four-wheeled ones. Jack had Carl absolutely spellbound with tales of his recumbent bike, the kind where you lay on your back and pedal.

As the sun sunk behind the hills to the west of Concord, North Carolina, the hyper-miler and hyper-racer pulled their black four-door back into the parking lot at the raceshop. Edwards suggested that Martin spend some time with his motorcoach driver, Tom Giacchi, to save the racer some of the "thousands and thousands of bucks I spend getting my motorhome from track to track all season."

As they said goodbye, Doctor Jack snatched a gift from his Honda and tossed it to the racer. "Here's a souvenir for you. I work with this company, T's Designs, that produces eco-friendly t-shirts. No pesticides or plastics or harsh paints were used to print it. The logo (for the 1st Annual Green Gala in Burlington, NC) is actually woven into the fabric."

Genuinely appreciative, Edwards rubbed the logo with his fingers to confirm Jack's claim, then shouted over to his assistant and business manager, Randy Fuller.

"Hey Randy, make sure you hook Dr. Jack up with some our old-fashioned, toxic, earth-destroying t-shirts before he leaves."

Then Carl smiled that championship grin and winked.

"One step at a time, right?"

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