This chase is over for NASCAR’s Carl Edwards

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One of NASCAR’s most eligible bachelors is no longer eligible.

Carl Edwards, who is second to Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup title playoff, recently announced his engagement to longtime sweetheart Dr. Kate Downey.

The two grew up in Columbia, Mo., and attended the same high school.

‘If you asked me four years ago if I’d be proposing to someone, I would have said, ‘No way,’ but she just got me,’ Edwards, 29, told reporters in a teleconference Tuesday. ‘She’s awesome.’

Edwards, who won his seventh race of the year Sunday in Atlanta, was asked if it’s harder to find love as a celebrity race-car driver.

‘With anything, life is complex,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if it’s any harder in auto racing to find that person, but I can tell you with my schedule and all of that, I didn’t plan on finding somebody as great as Kate.’

Downey, meanwhile, told the Columbia Daily Tribune that when Edwards proposed, he did not tack on the signature back flip he performs after he wins a race. ‘But I nearly did,’ she added.

-- Jim Peltz