Edwards meant to do more than rattle Brad K's cage (AP Photo/Joe Sebo)
Kurt Busch earned his second consecutive Kobalt Tools 500 victory at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He held off Matt Kenseth in the second green-white-checkered in a race that went sixteen laps over the scheduled 325 laps. He led 129 laps. Only Kasey Kahne led more laps, 144 to be exact.
Busch grabbed the lead on the next to last restart with a three-wide pass, as he soared by Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard.
“I’m just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane…Even on all the restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat today,” said Busch as he emerged from the Miller Lite Dodge.
While Kurt Busch’s twenty-first career victory was impressive, the victory will take a back seat to the on-track combat between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.
The Edwards-Keselowski conflict features a few chapters written over the past season, including the incident at Talladega last April, the Nationwide Series race at Memphis last October, the Nationwide Series race at Daytona just a few weeks ago, and now the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta.
On lap 41, the two drivers clashed again. Edwards attempted to get in line in front of Keselowski on the inside lane, but Keselowski did not give Edwards the room he needed. The contact between the two drivers sent Edwards up the track and into Joey Logano. Edwards spent well over 100 laps in the garage as his crew laboriously worked on the damage. In fact he was 153 laps off the pace when the notorious act of reprisal took place.
“I know Brad has made his career on being super-aggressive. We both had a part in it and it’s not his fault, but it’s just a little too aggressive overall, I think, for that early in the race and caused us to wreck,” Edwards initially said after the early wreck.
However, after having many laps to reflect on the incident, Edwards’ fury became intensified. Edwards’ calculated plot to avenge the earlier contact from Keselowski came just in the nick of time as he hit Keselowski’s Dodge with just three laps remaining in the event. Keselowski’s car went airborne, nearly flying into the grandstands.
“To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that’s not cool. You (Edwards) could have killed someone in the grandstands. I know that it’s a little ironic that it’s me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally…It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball,” said Keselowski after he checked out of the infield care center.
Keselowski advocated the idea that NASCAR should suspend Edwards for his reckless actions.
“Parking a guy for this is not enough. I think he deserves at least one race,” he said.
Edwards never denied his objective, though he did not anticipate Keselowski’s car lifting off the track.
“Brad knows the deal between him and I. The scary part was his car went airbone, which was not at all what I expected…I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s ok and we’ll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won’t get in any more incidents together. That would be the best thing,” Edwards said as he headed for the NASCAR trailer.
NASCAR informed all in the sport that they will allow drivers to display their personalities without the dropping the hammer every time a driver loses his cool. In fact, Robin Pemberton said, ‘have at it, boys’. Potential rivalries and feuds is one of the ways in which NASCAR promotes the sport these days. With that said, is suspending Edwards the justifiable punishment? If not, what brand of punishment is appropriate in this case?
We have seen drivers intentionally wreck others in the past.
Robby Gordon purposely wrecked Greg Biffle at Loudon in 2004. Dale Jarrett wrecked Ryan Newman on purpose at Bristol in 2005. Michael Waltrip wrecked Jeff Green on about three or four times at Darlington in 2005, all on purpose. Tony Stewart intentionally slammed into the side of Clint Bowyer at Pocono in 2006. Juan Pablo Montoya spun Stewart on purpose at Homestead last November. None of those instances resulted in a suspension. Of course, none of those instances had a driver sending another car in the air towards the grandstands.
If Keselowski’s car stayed on the ground, there would be hardly any mention of suspension. Would a suspension be too harsh based on NASCAR’s new self-policing idea? Would a suspension put the drivers back on the straight and narrow and fear punishment if they were to enact revenge? While you do not want to place drivers back in android mode, nobody wants cars flying towards the grandstands because of one guy’s temper tantrum.
As Keselowski said, the ball is in NASCAR’s court now, so let us see how they handle it. I am going to ponder over the confrontation a little more before I give my candid opinion on the type of punishment Edwards deserves.
Comments
You know..I keep going back on forth with my feelings on punishment. I guess to me..it all comes down to the intensity Carl had as he tracked down, stalked, and swiped at Brad before the final "punt". Now I know Montoya did the same with Stewart when he retaliated at Homestead..and Stewart expected it..was ready..even chuckled and said he deserved it. No harm..no foul. BUT..and this is where the difference comes for me...Carl seemed like he was just possessed...almost crazied..to the point all reasoning was gone..and THAT is what bothers me..scares me. We have seen this "character" in Carl before..and it's not a pretty sight. We could continue to blame Carl's actions on the aggressiveness of Brad..but look at his actions with his own team mate..the calm and cool and mostly gracious driver Kenseth..that video of Carl grabbing Kenseth and looking as if he was going to punch him was chilling..and telling. I truly think Carl needs some "cool down" laps before it all blows up.
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