Roush Fenway Racing president Steve Newmark said discussions also continue with Carl Edwards, who is the only Roush driver not signed beyond 2011. The team’s deal with AFLAC, the primary sponsor of Edwards’ #99 Ford, also is up after this season. Roush recently announced extensions concurrently with Greg Biffle and sponsor 3M. It’s expected the contract for Edwards would be done the same way. “The way NASCAR has evolved a little bit is sponsor and driver contracts aren’t done in isolation,” Newmark said. “They’re connected. The driver salary is directly dependent on the sponsor dollars coming in, so that dictates all of it. We’ve had discussions with AFLAC as well, similar to what we did with 3M and Greg. You try to match everything up; it’s putting the pieces of a puzzle together. We continue to have continuous discussions and remain cautiously optimistic about getting a deal done.”(USA Today)(5-1-2011)
