pressdog.com: Ed Carpenter Goes on Record with pressdog

Ed Carpenter.

The fighter of the good fight.

The near-vanquisher of the Empire.

Husband of Heather, father of Makenna and Ryder, brother of Lauren. Master of the ellipse.

He's all those things and more, and now he's on record with the pressdog, and you don't want to miss it. It's ED ... uncensored.

pressdog: Coming to the line at Kentucky, were you throwing yourself forward in the seat, mashing the overtake button with your head or any thing else to try and get an extra 6 feet out of your car?

Ed: I was pushing the button as much as I possibly could those last few laps. It makes you wait 10 seconds between pushes so I was just pushing that whole time waiting for it to come back on. I was thinking that I wish there was a way that I could throw my transponder to get that in front of Ryan at least, but I couldn’t reach it up on the front of the car.

pressdog: There seemed to be a huge outpouring of love from fans and maybe other teams in reaction to your sooooooo close P2. What did you make of that? Surprised? Moved? Flattered? Creeped out?

ED: I was actually surprised at the amount of support that was shown to myself and the team. I still haven’t figured out if it was people rooting for me or just against Penske, but either way I think I made some new fans which is always a good thing.

pressdog: You mentioned in your post-race interview that the last few weeks had been tough on your family. What does your Kentucky performance mean to the Hulman-George-Carpenter posse?

Ed: I know that it was a lot of fun to have that good run. A lot of the family was there to witness it, but I know that Tony and my mom Laura were especially happy despite what people may think from Tony’s post race interview...hopefully it shows people that I belong out there and I am not just racing because I am kind of part of that posse.

pressdog: Lauren George does a pretty fabulous job with her blog. Are you afraid that she'll put something at least mildly embarrassing/funny in there? (Like, you know, your remarks to Lauren during The Wedding.) Is the rest of the family always saying "Lauren, you CANNOT put this in your blog"?

(Recap: This is from Lauren's blog about Tony Jr.'s wedding: "Speaking of babes, even while on best man duty, Ed still couldn’t keep his eyes of his own bride. In the middle of the ceremony, he leaned over to me, nodded at Heather across the aisle, and whispered, 'Lauren! Look… at Heather’s…boobs!'" I swear. Check Lauren's original post here.)

Ed: I think we all have a lot of fun reading Lauren’s blogs. It is obvious that she is a very talented writer and that she's going to say what she wants. She didn’t tell the whole story with the wedding cleavage story...Heather was holding a bouquet of flowers, and a 3-inch needle fell out and was resting in her cleavage. My daughter, Makenna, was standing at Heather’s feet, and I had an image of Heather picking Makenna up and stabbing her...so I am not just a perve as Lauren suggested...I guess she is like any journalist and took the whole thing out of context...

pressdog: Be honest, when you crossed the line and realized you were P2 in Kentucky, did you use some unfortunate language (as I most certainly would have)? What was your immediate response/feeling?

Ed: It looked like I was shaking my fist in the car, but I was actually screaming that I finished second...that initial reaction was definitely pissed that I finished second.

pressdog: As a father of two myself, I know that the arrival of the second child changes the dynamic. What kinds of changes has the arrival of your second child brought to your family.

Ed: Since Ryder was born during the middle of the race season it has mainly meant more work and less sleep for Heather. For me I just get to enjoy playing with him, she gets up at night....I am sure that I will get paid back as soon as the season is over.

pressdog: Heather got some monster air during the Kentucky race. How does she like being on camera/interviewed?

Ed: I don’t think that she minds. I know that they were trying to interview her the last 20 laps and she refused to speak to them until it was over because she was so nervous...she was mainly hoping here interview didn’t come across like Mrs. Judd’s, but she didn’t call me a "gentleman" so it didn’t...

(Insert me spewing adult beverage all over my monitor here.)

pressdog: pressdog is all about the comedy, the laughs. Who is the funniest person in the IndyCar Traveling Circus and why?

Ed: There are a lot of funny people behind that scenes that work on race teams....it is hard to say. We have quite a few pranksters on the No. 20 crew, maybe I will sick them on you and then you will know.

pressdog: You and Sarah Fisher are about the only American engines-in-front Midget/Silver Crown/USAC/sprint car types in the league. What seems to prevent other drivers from those backgrounds from making the jump? Do you get together and talk 410 sprint car talk now and then?

Ed: We don’t talk sprint cars that much...I am still bummed that she beat me out for the Firestone tire-iffic move of the race at Kentucky. I wish there were more USAC guys in the series. I think the biggest thing that prevented it was all the manufacturer support from NASCAR that has been a part of USAC.

pressdog: What driver would you most want to put a "slide job" on and why?

Ed: I sure wish I could have put I slide job on Briscoe at Kentucky ...if we could do that in an Indy car it would have won me the race.

pressdog: You've grown up, literally, at IMS. What's your favorite part/area/feature of the track? When you were a kid and were running around inside IMS in, say, September, what would you do in there?

Tony Jr. and I were once running the bleachers in turn 2 when I was younger and we were thrown out by a yellow shirt...Tony didn’t argue with him, it was pretty funny. The view from the top of the pagoda is pretty amazing.

pressdog: Is it true that Pat Caporali (@visionracing) has the fastest twitter thumbs in all of IndyCardom?

Ed: She tweets quite a lot. Check out her phone sometime, the keys are all worn down from tweeting!

pressdog: The Twitter thing -- you're on board with @edcarpenter20. Do you dig Twitter or is it kind of annoying or addictive or what?

Ed: I was addicted at first, I have slowed down a little, but it is a lot of fun to follow what everyone is doing. I am not annoyed at all by it.

pressdog: When you tell people you're a professional race car driver, what kind of reaction do you get?

Ed: I don’t advertise it, but when people ask they are usually surprised. I think I am a pretty normal down to earth person, and the perception is that indycar drivers are not normal or down to earth, so I would say it surprises them.

pressdog: The whole Luke Skywalker (you) vs. the Empire (Ganassi & Penske) vibe that we bloggers like to put out. What's your reaction to that? Do you see yourself as the underdog, the Great Yellow Hope for breaking the Empire's lock on wins, or is that all just over done?

Ed: I am not much a Star Wars person, but I am cool with it. At the time didn’t feel like an underdog, I felt like we deserved and should be in that position. I hope to be there again some more this season. Let’s see if we can’t bring the empire down!

pressdog: How may times to you consult pressdog.com daily?