![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209925698-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhen Kyle Larson drove up the ramp to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports employees wearing team gear surrounded his car to prepare for the traditional celebratory photos.<\/p>\n
Somehow, inexplicably and inconceivably, Hendrick\u2019s director of communications Jon Edwards was not among them. He wasn\u2019t there to hand Larson a bottle of Prime and that weekend\u2019s sponsor hat, or direct him to the various media members awaiting interviews.<\/p>\n
Larson dedicated the win to Edwards, whose smiling face rode on the side of the No. 5 car and a handful of others \u2014 thanks to decals Hendrick made that read \u201cJon Edwards, One of a Kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
But how could the win be in honor of Edwards\u2019 life? Surely he was around there somewhere. Heck, he always was. It\u2019s impossible to think otherwise, except that\u2019s now reality.<\/p>\n
Edwards died this week at age 53 after a sudden, undisclosed illness. It left many in the NASCAR world completely reeling, because for the last 30 years, Edwards has been as ubiquitous in the NASCAR garage as stacks of tires.<\/p>\n
He was Jeff Gordon\u2019s right-hand man through much of the Hall of Famer\u2019s career, and their relationship went far beyond work colleagues; more like brothers, a tearful Gordon told reporters earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
After retiring from driving, Gordon asked Edwards to shepherd Larson through his Hendrick career, and Edwards obliged. He always seemed to find a way to accommodate requests both large and small, and that was a big one \u2014 but one he embraced with the utmost professionalism. So Edwards returned to the road life with fervor when many of his contemporaries in the racing PR business decided they\u2019d had enough of the traveling circus after so many years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Hendrick team created a decal to honor Jon Edwards, a PR director who worked with Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson, during this weekend\u2019s races at Bristol. (Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
So what do you mean he\u2019s gone? Edwards was just at Darlington Raceway last week until he felt ill. He was in the middle of planning Larson\u2019s Memorial Day Weekend \u201cDouble\u201d attempt, as he did last year. There was so much to do and coordinate early in this NASCAR season, which saw Larson \u2014 as usual \u2014 performing as one of the top drivers.<\/p>\n
But even with Edwards\u2019 shocking loss, this outpouring of grief and tributes \u2014 the decals, the touching video montages on national TV, the mentions in interviews \u2014 had to catch many NASCAR fans off guard.<\/p>\n
Who even is this guy?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the nature of what Edwards did. Even while working alongside two of NASCAR\u2019s greatest drivers, he was much happier to be behind the scenes trying to generate publicity for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cJon would probably want this to be a broader discussion about just what PR folks do, the dedication they have, the commitment and this balance they have of connecting a team or a driver with the media, with the fans, with the sponsors and also allowing them to stay focused on their job,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cHe was the best. I got to work with the best, and so did Kyle. Now others he\u2019s mentored will get to carry that on, and today we get to carry it on with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Edwards volunteered to participate in a small, online seminar for aspiring journalists. During his session, he lamented the loss of some old-school PR methods, primarily around relationship-building with media members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t see enough go into the media center and cultivate relationships,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI love having those discussions outside the transporter. I love going into the media center and just sitting down and we can just have a discussion, and all of a sudden a story pops out of that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the sort of personal connection that gave Edwards widespread admiration among the NASCAR media corps in addition to his deep-seated bonds with others in the team communications business and throughout the NASCAR industry.<\/p>\n
So, seeing the tributes pile up this week, Larson crew chief Cliff Daniels said, was \u201cthat way for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJon carried himself with a lot of joy, a lot of care for others,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cI can just think of so many situations in our time together where it didn\u2019t matter who it was or what publication or what media outlet or what driver, team, anybody. Jon had the same high level of care and concern and love for others (regardless) of who it was. That\u2019s what made him such a joy to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also what made this week, and this race weekend, so tough for so many. There\u2019s a little less joy in the NASCAR garage without Edwards, and meeting people like that can often be rare in life.<\/p>\n
After all, as the tribute decals said, Edwards was one of a kind.<\/p>\n
![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/AP111028011984-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Jon Edwards and Jeff Gordon talk during a rain delay at Martinsville in 2011. \u201cHe was the best,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cI got to work with the best, and so did Kyle (Larson).\u201d (Steve Helber \/ AP)<\/p>\n
(Top photo of Kyle Larson celebrating Sunday\u2019s win next to the decal on his car honoring Jon Edwards: Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kyle Larson drove up the ramp to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,4979,13189,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-20254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-motorsports","13":"tag-nascar","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114338499363357395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}