A few Februarys ago, I met up with Carl Edwards on the icy, snow-dusted tarmac of the Jim Hamilton - LB Owens Airport in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. He was in his early 30s at the time, and still a growing force in the sport after planting a flag in the Craftsman Truck series and winning the 2007 NASCAR Busch Cup series.

Since then, Edwards has risen to the top of the Roush Fenway Racing team ranks, then moved over to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he nearly won the Sprint Cup title twice—most recently this past season, when a late race wreck dashed his championship hopes.

In December, as NASCAR fans were picking up the pieces of fan favorite Tony Stewart's planned retirement, Edwards walked into Joe Gibbs's office in Charlotte, told him he wanted to be released from the final year on his contract, and then announced to a still quite stunned NASCAR world that he was leaving the sport, effective immediately.

One by one, drivers expressed their respect for Edwards' decision to go out at what is truly the prime of his game. But there is a hint of haterism, disguised as downhome perplexity. Matt Kenseth called him and tried to figure out what he was thinking, and hung up none the wiser. Kyle Busch is still searching for an explanation. Edwards says the reason isn't anyone's health, and that he won't be racing in any other series. He's hinted at political ambition, maybe even the Senate, and quoted Benjamin Franklin: "It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority," he wrote.

That last part might be the only explanation of Edwards's retirement that makes sense. Tony Stewart once said, "Carl, I think, is starting to show everybody that he's the Eddie Haskell of NASCAR." Edwards does has a tendency to sport a smile just a little too wide for a series peppered with taciturn media-haters like Kenseth, Kurt and Kyle Busch, and the truly unpleasant Kevin Harvick. Sure, Edwards may want to spend a little more time with his two young kids, but the fact is that a NASCAR driver gets a lot more vacation days than I you or do.

In reality, I think he believes himself to be cut out for something different. Something bigger than his 28 Sprint Cup wins and the backflips will ever get him, bigger even than a Cup championship.