“Let Me Out of the Car Before You Beat My A**”: Carl Edwards and Kyle Petty Look Back on Infamous Bristol Incident

The 2025 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony saw Carl Edwards reminisce on an age-old feud with Kyle Petty as the former was inducted into stock car racing’s famous Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina. The duo sat on stage and discussed what turned out to be a hilarious conversation as the two former drivers gave their sides of the story of their run-in at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2005.

Looking back at the incident after Petty brought it up, Edwards explained how the feud came to be, and the aftermath of what happened on-track as the race ended. He said:

“I was racing for my life. I realize the first time you ran into the back of me, ‘Oh he’s trying to end my day.’ I saved it, you went by and it’s like you waited for me or something, and in my little mind I thought, ‘Okay, I gotta wreck him so bad he can’t come back and wreck me.’ So I wrecked you.”

After accepting the intentions behind his actions at the time to the crowd’s amusement, Edwards elaborated on how Petty was angry with him after the event. He continued, “You looked like a Gorilla, like a monster, you’re the scariest man ever. I was like I’m going to appeal to his kindness so I was like, ‘Please sir will you let me out of the car before you beat my a**.'”

The hilarious sequence of events started when the Roush Fenway driver at the time went to pass Petty on the track, with the latter running him into the wall as he tried to do so. When Edwards found himself around Petty once again, he took matters into his own hands and wrecked him.

“After the race, he came down to tell me that, ‘Hey, it was just an accident. I didn’t mean to do it.’ That’s how crazy it is. You can think somebody is so angry at you. Sometimes maybe you need a radio frequency where the drivers can talk,” elaborated Edwards after the race, clearing the air.

Both drivers shook hands at the time and went their separate ways, only to discuss the matter almost 20 years later. Such is the average NASCAR driver’s memory. Anyone wondering if drivers keep a score of who they owe on the track and who owes them should have a clear answer now. While on-track alterations do not always end on such jolly terms, this one instance does come as a breath of fresh air.