Edwards and Keselowski: My Take

by Patrick Reynolds on March 9, 2010 · 0 comments

Did you intentionally wreck him?

“Well Brad knows the deal between him and I. The scary part was that his car went airborne which is not at all what I expected…” blah, blah, blah.

I heard a yes or no question. I didn’t hear a yes or no answer, which was what we were all looking for. Or I will admit that at least I was looking for it. I already knew the answer. But I was listening for Carl Edwards to say it.

And let me state I like Edwards. I have met him before and he was extremely nice and friendly. I won’t misrepresent myself here and pretend to be good buddies with him either. Over the years he has said and done things I like and said and done things I didn’t like. In Sunday’s Atlanta race I didn’t like.

Backing up the time machine, let’s take a look at the day’s first incident between Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Edwards approached turn one in the middle groove and once in the turn moved to the lower lane. Keselowski was already there. The pair bumped and up to the fence went the Edwards machine, damaging Joey Logano’s ride in the process.

Keselowski said he lifted but couldn’t slow enough to let the Edwards car in. Watching the race, that explanation seemed very plausible. There is a history of tension between the two so maybe Keselowski isn’t exactly looking to help ‘Cousin Carl’ either. The crash appeared to be a racing accident. If anything more, percentage lay with Edwards for the rapid lane change.

Fast forward roughly 280 laps and here comes the revenge move. Edwards turns right along the frontstretch and spins Keselowski. The car does one of the infamous backward lift pirouettes that high-speed stock cars are known for and crashes back to earth.

If Keselowski simply spins into the infield this discussion is not nearly as emphatic. But he didn’t. He took off flying. That is a huge problem.

The reverse turnovers are rare at Atlanta despite the car’s top speeds exceeding the superspeedways. They can happen. Elliott Sadler and Johnny Benson have shown their tailpipes to Michigan fans.

But if any driver hits another in front of them to send that person out of control then the hitter is responsible for whatever happens. If it a lazy spinout, he bears responsibility. If the car flies into the grandstands and spectators have consequences, he bears responsibility.

The blame for the 2009 Talladega crash between these same two also falls at Edwards’ feet. He blocked Keselowski, the trailing Brad simply held his line and into the fence goes the Roush-Fenway driver.

The other Keselowski crashing instances have no place in judging this issue. I agree that he made some mistakes and some drivers will not give the Michigan native any extra room. But no matter who did what to whom, the fans in the stands do not need to be dodging pieces from two guys’ attitude match.

“Have at it boys” was the slogan following NASCAR’s session on the offseason’s media tour. Robin Pemberton’s words were very clear that day. NASCAR would back off in policing bump drafting and other aggressive moves on the track. But there still was a line of dirty and over aggressive driving to cross. Words cannot be printed to outline a rule for every single racecar situation. There needs to be wiggle room for common sense. And everyone knew that.

Anyone who wants to throw this back in NASCAR’s face has no place to do it, unless they have selective memory and hearing. What happened Sunday was obviously over the line for Pemberton’s comment. NASCAR was specific in explaining that fact in that very same press conference.

Carl Edwards was parked for the remainder of the Atlanta race for the crash. And then proceeded up pitlane in the opposite direction, creating a second dangerous situation. His punishment is three weeks probation.

Probation is not a punishment. Any driver I have ever seen on probation and then makes another bad decision simply gets their probation extended. Probation has never been defined to the public. There is no consequence.

I am glad for a rivalry. I love to see raw emotion. But a car flew through the air after a deliberate dump, and created a dangerous scenario for the fans. This is the reason why restrictor plates exist at all, to keep cars on the ground and out of the grandstands.

If you purposefully spinout a car in front of you then you must accept responsibility for whatever that car does, intended or not. Carl Edwards did something wrong on Sunday. In my opinion he got away with it.

(Patrick Reynolds is a former NASCAR mechanic who co-hosts the One and Done auto racing talk show Tuesdays at 11am ET on www.wsicweb.com)

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Two Wide: Perspectives On Carl Vs. Kez

by Jim on March 8, 2010 · 12 comments

UPDATE (12:52 Eastern): According to an update on Jayski.com, Carl Edwards will be placed on three race probation (read that: Behave yourself) and a meeting between Edwards, Keselowski, and owners Roger Penske (Kez) and Jack Roush (Edwards) will be forthcoming …

It’s a double dose of reaction today at Bump Drafts as Jeremy T. Sellers and yours truly offer up a pair of perspectives on the little on track lovefest between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski..

In The Red Corner, here’s Jeremy

Up In The Sky….

…It’s a bird, it’s a plane, NO!  It’s Brad Keselowski! 

…And I must premise by stating I’m not condoning what Cousin Carl did, in no way as a matter of fact.  However, I will go on record as stating seeing a good crash at a big league event is a guilty pleasure we all have as long as no one gets hurt, and it’s not our favorite driver.  Gotta have stipulations, ya know?  Now, any of you can be appalled by my introduction to this piece, gasp, get wide-eyed, loudly sigh "Noooooo!",  all you want, but it’s something instilled in us as teeth-grinding fans.  Yet now it’s time NASCAR finds its balance in letting the drivers have control of their races, emotions, and actions. 

I don’t think any of us will disagree at the fact NASCAR had nearly surgically sterilized itself out of business.  (Believe me, I know a few things about surgical sterilization, it’s a hot, humid, arduous process). So when Brian France went public in stating he was going to hand driving back to, now imagine this, THE DRIVERS, I don’t believe he had these incidents such as what occurred Sunday, in mind.  Now, he finds himself in a position to decipher what constitutes a "good ol’ behind the wood shed ass kickin" as opposed to injury or death of drivers and fans.  Hey, I was one of the ones yelling, "WHOOOAAAAA!" when Carl took out Brad, but in the same breath, I was just as equally excited, especially when all proved to be okay.

What is the middle ground? Since this just happened Sunday, this concept is obviously still in its infancy, but there has to be some.  Now, I don’t agree with the likes of Joe Menzer of NASCAR.com and Mike Humbee of SPEED who think it’s this occurrence should mean the end of the world for Carl.  Menzer even suggested Edwards should have waited until Bristol for payback.  Now, realistically, can you imagine just HOW many cars THAT would involve?  So, we buzz about NASCAR needing rivalries, and how, in a sadistic way, it’s healthy for the sport.  Guess that means I’m a sadist.  Yet now that we have a couple, there is an outcry for some serious wank spanking to take place.  C’mon people, make up my mind, will ya?  It may sound as if I’m doing a fair share of fence walking here, and I would have to agree.  However, it has to be one way or the other in terms of letting drivers "do their thing" or not, during races.  At least this time, no one got hurt, but hey fans, we have a rivalry!

So what is the answer?  That in the glory of being a dumb ol’ fan from the suburbs, I don’t have to come up with one.  Yet NONE of us can deny that the quality of racing isn’t better than years past, even at tracks such as California and Vegas and the season is only FOUR races along!  My advice to NASCAR?  Don’t change what you’ve done thus far, but maybe don’t blink your eyes as much during the race!

Thanks, Jeremy. There you have the conflict; a lot of fans want that passion, that raw-boned “I’m not gonna take your crap” emotion, but not as long as it’s a driver I like, or it involves a driver I don’t like.

And In The Green Corner, Jim comes out swinging……

I’ll tell you who’s in a corner- it’s NASCAR. Traditional fans of the rough and tumble racin’ Brian France promised a return to will say say, “See, I told you it was empty talk,” if they hand down one of their stiff penalties of the past.

On the other hand, roughly 65 to 70 percent of every fan poll I’ve ever seen says Edwards’ behavior must be addressed. To be sure, I have no doubt there are a healthy number of haters among them, who’d cry for justice no matter what he did. On the other hand, I find myself surprised at just how strong the reaction is. Not helping is Edwards’ track record for hot-headedness. For the record, on the matter of ‘roid rage? That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve heard. There’s no reason on Earth for Carl to mess with the stuff.

If NASCAR were regulated more like the NFL, they could suspend on some kind of personal conduct violation, but NASCAR has no real precedent, other than the dreaded “conduct detrimental…” clause. I suppose you could put him on probation, but what kind of message does that send after the “Have At It” speech. It sends another confusing set of signals.

In what I am sure is the mother of all butt-chewings, I’d like to think they made Cousin Carl aware of the position he has put them in, and while the idea of retribution is not entirely frowned on, the idea of possibly putting lives at risk is incredibly thoughtless on Edwards’ part.

Speaking strictly as a fan, I am not surprised at what happened to Kez. His list of enemies is pretty long, racing aggressively in two series. Looks to me like his ego has written checks his talent can’t cash. I don’t think he intentionally wrecks people, but ironically, like Edwards (think Talladega, Fall, 2008), he takes chances he shouldn’t in the name of hard-charging. Not everybody can be, nor should they try to be Dale Earnhardt.

In my opinion, NASCAR is going to have to take a bold, new measure: they’re going to have to treat the drivers like men, civilized men. Edwards was parked, and I have little doubt he had a scolding reminiscent of a trip to the principal’s office. It’s little consolation for Keselowski, but other than a very strong, terse warning, I wouldn’t do much more.

Now, going into Bristol, I’d have a little “town hall,” a driver’s meeting to try to clear the air a bit. If I’m NASCAR, I am mainly serving as facilitator, not dictator. I’m not talking about lawyering this thing to death, with a bunch of silly stipulations like you see with “zero tolerance” policies in schools. I’m talking about some straight talk about what acceptable and unacceptable retribution looks like. Ramming somebody in the deck lid on a cool down lap, a la Kyle Busch, or a punch in the snoot a la Jimmy Spencer, that’ll fly. Punting a driver on a short track a la Matt Kenseth on David Gilliland, we won’t encourage or discourage it. Now- sending a driver into orbit at 180 miles per hour? Now you’re crossing a line, one that involves NASCAR looking at- on a case by case basis- the possibility of fines, suspensions, points penalties or even expulsion where necessary.

If you lay your personal biases for or against any driver aside for a moment, you then realize it is a complicated matter. Take the stupid wing off the car, and more than likely Keselowski is only taking a harder ride than the one he got courtesy of Denny Hamlin at Homestead in the Nationwide Series.

Though common sense isn’t all that common, it’s time for personal responsibility to make a come back. NASCAR said they were going to leave it up to the drivers, now it’s time to see if these boys can police themselves. If they can’t- they lose, we all lose in the long run. 

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Race React: Kurt Not Tire(d) Of Atlanta

by Jim on March 7, 2010 · 5 comments

Kurt Busch winning in Atlanta- it’s a rite of Spring like the swallows returning to Capistrano. I’m beginning to think whatever formula it is “The Captain” (Roger Penske) has for success at Atlanta, he could make a bundle off of it.

Not only did Busch rumble hard with Kasey Kahne to offer up a nice “Battle of The Brews” (Miller Lite and Bud), Brad Keselowski ran strong until he got punted by Carl Edwards (much more of that later), and Sam Hornish has game for much of the race, until he faded to 28th.

Well, I guess the boys at Hendrick human after all. Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon fell quickly from contention, Mark Martin struggled to stay top twenty, until he got wrecked late, and Jimmie just wasn’t, uh, well….Jimmie. While this race wasn’t exactly a tire “debacle,” the Hendrick cars were having all kinds of trouble with tires or a feeling like tires were going down.

A rough day for Hendrick and the affiliated Stewart- Haas team opened the door for results you usually expect from a plate race, and a number of the lesser knowns were there to capitalize. Paul Menard got just his second career top five, A.J. Allmendinger took sixth, Brian Vickers took seventh for his best run of the season, and Scott Speed- who’s coming on strong so far in 2010, ran tenth. Now I don’t necessarily expect this will hold up, but do you realize that if the Chase started today, Speed and Menard would be in it?

You can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the race had gone caution-free at the end. Juan Pablo Montoya appeared to be closing fast on Busch. JPM had it going on all day, with Kahne, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin right in it. Montoya conceded Busch was better on the short runs, while he could close on the long ones.

He may not have the wins to show it, but Matt Kenseth has to be smiling big with how his team is performing. Not only is the new pairing of Kurt Busch with Steve Addington paying big dividends, Kenseth’s new partnership with Brad Parrott is looking like gold. You look at the standings right now, Kenseth is right on points leader Kevin Harvick’s rear bumper.

Speaking of Harvick, he gets props for wrestling his car into the top ten. He was virtually invisible most of the day, but managed to survive well the battle of attrition at the end.

For all this, all the big talk is revolving around the big wreck involving Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Early in the race, Keselowski tapped the corner of Carl’s car, which sent the “99” climbing up the track into Joey Logano’s car. Edwards seemed pretty civil about it while interviewing in the garage, but apparently that second look at the replay produced what commentator Darrell Waltrip expected.

As the race was winding down, Edwards made one run at Keselowski and missed, and then he connected to send the “12” car flying into the fence, a la Edwards at Talladega. Edwards got parked by NASCAR, and got called into the NASCAR hauler.

It will be interesting to see how this gets handled after NASCAR said they’d let the gloves come off this season. This incident is the first real test of letting the “boys be boys.” Given the cries for more “real emotion,” I am a bit surprised at how many people are calling for Edwards’ suspension. I suppose you know what tomorrow’s article will be about. Be prepared to share your opinion. 

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