By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Usually as a motorsports writer you write specifically about auto racing, however occasionally stories will pop up that are out of the realm of tire wear, oil changes and laptimes. One of those stories is the one that cropped up with the release of Amanda Beard’s new book. In it she has a chapter on her relationship with Carl Edwards. In that chapter she states that Edwards was selfish, and he didn’t help her in times of need including an addiction she had to cocaine.

Carl Edwards Friday at Texas Motor Speedway responded to Beard’s book.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR OPINION ON WHAT AMANDA BEARD WROTE ABOUT YOU IN HER BOOK AND THE FACT THAT SHE WROTE ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

“I thought about that a lot and I couldn’t really come up with a good explanation or answer for you guys because I truly didn’t know what to think about it. I guess all I can say is that I considered us friends and I didn’t realize that she had all those problems. I would have done anything in the world to have helped her with those. As always, regardless of what she writes in her books and things like that, if she ever needs something from me I would be there to help her out. I don’t know what else to say about that.”

Q: DO YOU DISPUTE ANY OF THE THINGS SHE WROTE ABOUT YOU?

“Absolutely but I wouldn’t know where to start. I don’t know if I am supposed to talk about the psychology of feelings and opinions when you have a relationship that doesn’t work out or if I am supposed to talk about the strategies to sell books or whatever. To be honest with you guys, it is just weird. I don’t know how to address things that I don’t even remember happening. That is tough. It is pretty far out there out of left field for me.”

Q: I KNOW YOU ARE A VERY PRIVATE GUY SO I AM CURIOUS IF YOU HAD ANY HEADS UP THAT THERE WOULD BE ANYTHING ABOUT YOU IN THAT BOOK AND HOW YOU FELT ABOUT A PAST RELATIONSHIP BEING OUT THERE?

“I appreciate you asking the questions but the hard part is to even talk about it because it just really caught me off guard and is kind of sad in a way for me to read that. It made me feel a little bit sad for Amanda that she was going through all that. No, specifically when I heard, actually someone told me a long time ago that she was going to write a book and I thought, ‘Good for her that is awesome.’ All the correspondence we have had between 2006 and now has all been good. Like I said, I considered us friends. I want to be very clear that I am not going to stand up here and bash her or say bad things about her because I didn’t know all that stuff was going on. She is a mother and a wife and someone that I cared about. If down the road she ever needs something from me, she’s got it.”

There’s two sides to every story.

– Toby Christie is the lead Motorsports writer for Sicknissified.com, and he can be reached via twitter or email. Tweet him @Tobalical or email him at tobalical@sicknissified.com. You can also find his work at TheFinalLap.com this weekend.