Edwards: Season starts at California

Edwards was among a number of cars involved in a multi-car wreck a few laps from the early end of the season-opener. Eventually he finished the race in 18th, while his teammate Matt Kenseth took Roush Fenway's maiden Daytona 500 win.

The 29-year-old laments his season didn't get off to a good start, but he looks forward to Sunday's event at Fontana, which he won a year ago.

"Last week did not end up the way we wanted, but it was cool that Ford was in Victory Lane," Edwards said. "It was neat to see Matt win the race. I still haven't seen video of what happened last week, so I don't know exactly what happened in that wreck.

"I'm sure they're figuring that out right now. But I love racing here. It's a fun racetrack. We were really good in practice, and this was the start of a really great season last year, so hopefully we can have a good run here and get started the same way."

Edwards says he is still uncertain about the real impact of the testing ban on the pecking order. Although early signs point at it not changing very much from the end of last year, he prefers to wait in order to judge how strong the competition will be.

"I didn't know what to expect today," Edwards said. "I didn't know if we were going to be fast or slow or whatever. It looks like we're pretty good. It looks like Jimmie's real good.

"So, I don't think a ton has changed, but we haven't gotten into race practice. I'm sure there's a lot of teams still that have a lot of things to do. So, I think you'll really know after race practice, kind of how everybody stacks up."

The Columbia-native expects this weekend's race to be more of a mirror of what to expect in the coming races.

"I think the season really starts here," he added. "Daytona is such a huge event and it's a different type of racing than we're going to race the rest of the season, and it kind of stands alone, literally and figuratively.

"I really feel like this is where you're going to see how strong your pit crew is, how good your relationship is with your crew chief, and if the engineering you've been working on work, and the things that work here are going to apply at a lot of race tracks."

Edwards has finished in the top ten in eight out of nine races he has entered at Fontana. He will start Sunday's event from 25th on the grid