Brad Keselowski came into Cup like a fox in the hen house. It just happened that Carl was the first to get his feathers ruffled. OK, more than ruffled, more like his neck rung, and his feathers plucked. Apparently he hasn’t forgiven, or forgotten.
If you believe that "Bad Brad" had a lesson coming ( I’m not totally convinced), I’d still have to question the advisability of showing him the error of his ways on the fastest track on the circuit. If we take a look at the incident at Atlanta that spoiled Carl’s and Joey’s day, what I see is Carl making a banzai move from the high line to the bottom. Only one problem, Brad was already there. Brad said in his interview, that he tried to give Carl room, but that there wasn’t time.
Remember the speeds. I think I’d have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. If he’d jumped on his brakes, he’d have gotten run over. If we look back to Talladega, where this thing really started, I see a clear culprit…..blocking. Carl tried to block a driver who was extremely hungry, who also remembered what happened to Regan Smith, when Tony blocked. If you try to take a pork chop from a pit bull, what do you think is going to happen? One thing I don’t think is going to happen, is if Brad finds himself in the same situation again, the guy in front probably won’t try to
block.
If we believe what we read, then not only Carl and Denny, but half of the garage is down on Brad. Let’s see if we can figure out why.
I’m working on an interview with back to back Busch Series Champion Randy La Joie. I’ll give you a little preview that I think may hold the answer….
John: "We have a lot of long time fans who are upset with the NASCAR. What do you think about the state of Cup racing."
Randy: "There’s too much money in the sport today, no one’s hungry. When I was coming up, we needed every dollar we could get. If you were running sixth, and thought you could move up to fifth, you’d go for it because you needed the money. If you had to move someone, that’s what you did. Now all the drivers are too
good a friends. They all live together on Lake Norman. They park together in the Motor Home Lot every week. No one wants’ to make waves, or make anyone mad."
Make sense? It does to me. A multi-millionaire would race differently than someone who’s really hungry. I think Randy’s nailed it. These guys are comfortable racing against each other. Not just because they respect each others skills, but because they race the way everyone wants’ to. We see way too much of this- “After you.” “No after you.” Maybe they just don’t like racing against someone who takes them out of their comfort zone. Who doesn’t "play the game," and wait until the last laps to really start racing?
I’ve heard drivers whining to their spotters, or crew chiefs about someone "racing them too hard." Say what? Cup drivers are the second highest paid drivers in the world.Maybe it’s not all bad that Brad’s got them a little shook up.
Back to Carl, if he really felt that he needed to teach Brad something about respect, it might have been better to have waited until Bristol. Not only did he put Brad, and other drivers at risk, he also potentially could have put fans at risk also.
The way things are, NASCAR needs all the paying customers they can get. If Carl really felt justified in making his point the way he did, I might suggest a better place to do it, but I won’t criticize his doing it. After all, I can’t see Jimmie Johnson doing it, and we all know what people say about him.
I’m sure after Brad’s been in Cup a while he’ll settle down. If we’re lucky, when he does, someone else will come along, and race like he’s racing now.
Until that time comes, I’ll keep my eye on him.
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