NASCAR driver Carl Edwards recently took the 1901 Ford Sweepstakes racer for a spin. Let’s ride along for a history lesson on the car that launched Henry Ford’s automotive career. 

“This is the coolest car I have ever driven, no doubt about it. There isn’t even a close second,” says Edwards, who usually can be found wheeling a Ford Fusion race car in Sprint Cup for Roush Fenway Racing. Along with the test drive, Cousin Carl was given a complete briefing on the racer by Glen Miller, Sweepstakes’ caretaker and a leading authority on important early automobiles.

Here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we’re sort of partial to Sweepstakes ourselves. The car figures prominently in MCG’s feature, Oliver Barthel, Man of Motors (June 6, 2012). Barthel, a Detroit automotive pioneer, worked closely with Ford in constructing the racer, and that’s him in the passenger seat alongside Henry in the well-known photograph below.

Henry Ford and Oliver Barthel with the Sweepstakes racer, 1901

Sweepstakes is not just a fascinating machine; it’s a critical artifact. It would be difficult to overstate the significance of this single car in the history of the Ford Motor Company and the industry as a whole. “To think that 112 years ago, a man sat in this cockpit, and raced his way not only into his family’s future, his personal future, but changed the way the whole world thinks about building things, and business in general—it’s been an amazing experience,” says Edwards. Video below.