I remember listening to CEO Brian France back during media days about how the sport wanted to bring back the good ol’ days of racing. I heard him and Robin Pemberton say ““Boys, have at it.” So really after yesterday’s incident when Carl Edwards retaliated on Brad Keselowski, how can NASCAR penalize Edwards? Fact is they have been asking for this for a while by letting the hot-headed driver take out others on a regular basis.
Yes, what Carl did was intentional and it wasn’t right; however, the fact is we all know that for the last two seasons things have been boiling down to this. Keselowski has been able to get by with his “I don’t care” approach by taking out others. It was last November that he was spun by veteran Denny Hamlin in the season finale at Homestead. If NASCAR were to penalize him, they’d be going against everything that they wanted to see back in January. It would definitely cause a spark in a lot of fans thoughts about where NASCAR was going with this.
The one question I would ask, “Do you defend certain drivers but let others go for these things?” I have definetly seen it in the past with certain drivers I won’t mention. But would this incident have really sparked as much noise had the 12 car not gone airborne? I think this is the situation that NASCAR was asking for when they told the guys to “have at it”.
What Carl did, has been done numerous times before. Tempers flare and there have been retaliations, so we will see what NASCAR decides on come the middle of this week. But if a suspension does occur, then they have gone against all they have discussed. The fact is Carl did exactly what they wanted. Earlier in the week, Jeff Gordon said that the sport needed a rivalry to spark the TV ratings up, and they got that Sunday.
On Sunday evening, Edwards put on his facebook page “My options: Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyones safety or hard work, should I: A-Keep letting him wreck me? B-Confront him after the race? C-Wait til bristol and collect other cars? or D-Take care of it now? I want to be clear that I was surprised at his flight and very relieved when he walked aw…ay. Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine.”
In theory, you push me around, I push back. B-K has been trying to play bully with a lot of veteran drivers and it is begining to show up that they aren’t going to take his bull. Denny Hamlin didn’t comment on the issue, but you know that deep down he was laughing when his rival got punted. Edwards and Hamlin have taken the blunt of Keselowski’s crap, and both are tired of it. People thought Kyle Busch was a reckless driver, you’ve got another one now, its this kid from Michigan that thinks he owns everyone.
He will have to learn that in this league, the bigger veteran’s don’t play nice when you wreck them.
