MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Carl Edwards is looking forward to one aspect of returning to Talladega Superspeedway one week from this Sunday.

He hopes to be able to meet in person with Blake Bobbitt, the young woman whose jaw was broken when a piece of Edwards' No. 99 Ford flew into the frontstretch grandstands as the Aaron's 499 Sprint Cup race reached its wild and controversial conclusion this past April.

"We text back and forth," Edwards said. "And I think she's going to come down and say hey at Talladega, so that's cool."

A look back

• Wake up: 'Dega not safe
• Wreck reaches the fans
• Injured teen out of hospital
• Safety withstands scrutiny
• No reining in destruction
• Hint of harsher penalties

Video

• Final Laps: Edwards gets air
• Dr. Lewis reports on spectators
• Edwards on his dramatic wreck
• Newman criticizes car safety
• Sensationalism upsets Junior
• Edwards visits Larry King

Audio

• Johnson, Junior on 'Dega
• Debating need for change
• Safety on NASCAR's mind

The Sprint Cup Series makes its return to Talladega one week from this Sunday for the Amp Energy 500. After the wreck at the finish last time that sent his car airborne and dangerously close to the top of the catch fence that supposedly was protecting fans along the frontstretch, Edwards admitted Friday at Martinsville Speedway that he's not necessarily looking forward to actually returning to race on the 2.66-mile track.

He added that he stands by what he said following the April race, when he insisted that changes to the style of racing there were needed immediately. Drivers frequently drive in packs at speeds hovering near 200 mph in the restrictor-plate race, often setting off chain-reaction wrecks that take out several cars at a time.

"Hopefully they can do something to change this style of racing," Edwards said following the April race. "I guess we'll do this until somebody gets killed and then we'll change it, but that's the way it is.

At Martinsville, Edwards did not back away from his pointed post-race comments.

"Listen, man. I said it," Edwards said. "I go there and I run that race. I don't know what else to say, other than to say I just don't like that kind of racing. When I think of racing, that's not what I think of. I'm just not a fan of it.

"I know the fans love it, and I understand the appeal with NASCAR and why we do it. But man, it's just too bad that we gave that to the fans and showed them what it could be. Because I think it would be so much better if we didn't have that race in the sport."

Edwards added that he "doesn't think it does any good" to continue to beat on the same drum and that he intends to buckle up and do his best in the upcoming race. In fact, he denied that he feels any trepidation whatsoever about doing so.

"I know it sounds silly, but I was thinking about Talladega and going back there and everything that can happen and that really wasn't part of my thinking until I saw a picture on NASCAR.COM or something and I thought, 'Oh yeah, that was a pretty wild wreck.' To me, that's not the thing that's forefront in my mind going there; it's the strategy that I'm gonna use," Edwards said.

"I did learn something about the end of the race -- block once, but I probably won't block twice. Really, personally, I feel good about it. I think that wreck showed me you can have a pretty wild wreck and walk away from it."

That was more than could be said for Bobbitt, who had to be helped to a local hospital after the incident. Then 17 (she since has celebrated her 18th birthday and graduated from high school), Bobbitt underwent reconstructive surgery where two plates had to be inserted in her jaw, which was then wired shut for six weeks.

Edwards said he called Bobbitt recently and had a "really positive conversation" with her.

"A piece of my car hit her in the face. I just felt bad. I wanted to talk to her about it," Edwards said. "I just wanted her to know that everybody on my team was behind her and wanted to help her.

"She's doing OK. She had a broken jaw. We didn't talk at length about her injuries -- but the way I understand it, it broke her jaw and knocked [some of] her teeth out. So it was a bad deal. It was right before she graduated high school, so that was tough. From what I can tell, she handled it well."

Edwards said when he discovered Bobbitt and seven other fans had been injured (the rest were relatively minor injuries) as a result of his airborne car slamming into the catch fence, it was a horrible feeling.

"That's the worst feeling I've had in racing," Edwards said. "When I landed in my airplane in Washington [D.C.] after that race -- I was going to a Ford appearance -- Randy [Fuller], my PR guy, told me, 'Look, there were some people injured.' That was a really bad feeling."

Rick Humphrey, the president of Talladega Superspeedway, hired an outside engineering firm to examine what could be done to his track's infrastructure to improve safety in the aftermath of Edwards' accident. Humphrey recently announced that the catch fence along the frontstretch has been raised an additional eight feet, from 14 to 22 feet.

But the racing itself will remain essentially the same. Humphrey and NASCAR officials, including spokesman Jim Hunter, have insisted that the racing is safe at Talladega as is and that the catch fence essentially did its job by keeping Edwards' car from going into the grandstands.

"NASCAR raising the fences is good," Edwards said. "Hopefully, they made the screens tighter -- the holes in the fence smaller -- and hopefully we don't have anything like that happen again."

Meanwhile, he said he looks forward to meeting in person with Bobbitt -- even if he's not all that pumped about participating in the upcoming race at Talladega.

"She's really nice and she's a pretty cool chick," Edwards said. "We've been talking a little bit and I think she's gonna come out to the race. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up, but that was crazy. I hope nothing like that happens again."

Related
• NASCAR reducing size of restrictor plates for 'Dega
• Fences to be raised at Daytona and Talladega