Tony Stewart Update: Carl Edwards Calls 'Smoke' Worst Athlete in NASCAR [VIDEO]

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on Jan 18, 2015 02:20 PM EST By Greg Archuleta on Jan 18, 2015 02:20 PM EST

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Tony Stewart's 2015 is off to an inauspicious start, but he may appreciate the sentiment.

In an interview with 120sports.com's Michael Kim, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards talked about the best and worst athletes among the drivers in the sport, NASCAR.com reported.

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And Stewart did not make Edward's list of best athletes.

"It's obviously Tony Stewart; he's the worst," Edwards said. "We give Tony a lot of trouble. He must be the toughest guy in the world because he does nothing for his fitness and he's able to go out there and do a great job. He's a tough guy."

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Whether Edwards was joking is uncertain. NASCAR.com noted that Edwards may not be Stewart's biggest fan after losing the 2011 Sprint Car series championship in a tiebreaker (the two tied in points but Stewart had more wins).

The conversation was light-hearted, but Edwards sounded as if he believed what he was saying. The dig at Stewart was a playful one, and probably welcome after the tumultuous second half to the 2014 season "Smoke" had after his car struck Kevin Ward Jr., at a dirt track in New York, sending Ward sprawling forward some 50 feet on the track and killing him instantly.

And Edwards added that being athletic is not a requirement for the job.

"Everybody asks, 'Are drivers athletes?' Edwards said. "You don't have to be athlete. You don't have to be in any sort of physical shape. But there are days when it really pays off and it really helps."

Edwards considered himself among the best athletes, along with Kasey Kahne and Jimmy Johnson. But the best NASCAR athlete, in Edwards' opinion, is Josh Wise.

"Josh Wise actually has done or is doing an iron man triathlon," Edwards said. "This guy's very competitive. He's a world-class athlete."

Edwards wasn't joking about himself. A shirtless Edwards - showing his six-pack abdominals - twice has grace the cover of ESPN The Magazine and once appeared on the cover of Men's Health.

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