Two Wide: Perspectives On Carl Vs. Kez

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.