Mike Edwards has a game plan on Thursdays and it has nothing to do with his race car. There’s no special routine he goes through checking and preparing his Pontiac GXP for Friday’s qualifying sessions.

The day before an event, Edwards invites a number of inner-city youth to the track to counsel them on the positives of making the right decisions and fending off the overwhelming nature of peer pressure.

Friday night he put action to his words during qualifying for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

Mike Edwards has a game plan on Thursdays and it has nothing to do with his race car. There’s no special routine he goes through checking and preparing his Pontiac GXP for Friday’s qualifying sessions.

The day before an event, Edwards invites a number of inner-city youth to the track to counsel them on the positives of making the right decisions and fending off the overwhelming nature of peer pressure.

Friday night he put action to his words during qualifying for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

Edwards stormed to the provisional No. 1 position in both of Friday’s qualifying sessions, improving in the evening session with a 6.698 second run.

His lesson to the kids was to never give up.

“Well, don't ever give up,” Edwards answered, when asked what his Thursday lesson was. “I was pretty beat up here last year. You know, our “young life” program every Thursday night is truly an inspiration to me and my whole team.”

Edwards hosted 30 kids on Thursday and 75 on Friday thanks to a donation of tickets from the Bristol Dragway management.

“We made two really good runs and my guys are just doing a really, really good job,” Edwards emphasized. “We've spend a lot of time at the race track, not so much at the national event, but we've been doing a lot of testing and it's really starting to benefit us. My hat's off to the guys at the shop, Nick and Paul and everybody there. I think I have about worn them out. When you can see results like this, it sure makes you feel like your work is not going in vain.  I just got a lot of people to thank, but I have to thank the Lord. He has given me so much to be thankful for; I am truly blessed.”

So were the kids from Young Life.

They were impressed, too.  

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