So Joe – What Happened to Good Hard Racing?

“I think at the last lap there was a lot of hard racing going on,” Joe Balash said. “There was some movement on the racetrack. It was a tough finish for a really great race.   We’ve chatted about this evening, yes. We don’t talk about any of those conversations (that we have) in the hauler.”

So Joe, what happened to there being a lot of hard racing?  Plain and simple, NASCAR made a call on Saturday night and pretty much said that there would be no penalty.  And then a review board decides to hand out a 60 point, $25000 penalty to Carl Edwards?  And gives the punk Brad Keselowski a probation that will last for the remainder of the season?  Yeah sounds fair doesn’t it?  I don’t think so, but if you are a fan of BK you probably do, or part of the ESPN, Fox Sports, or TNT crew. 

I listened to drivers Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, then Dale Jarrett say this was over the line.  Kevin Harvick should know really well what over the line is, and Jeff Gordon should as well since he is on quite a few drivers hit lists this season after wrecking them.   Keselowski has shown he likes to rattle people’s cages and his has been rattled twice by one driver, and both times he couldn’t handle the heat inside the kitchen.  I think that there are still quite a few people that realize the facts in this situation. 

• 1 – Keselowski started this mess, and it didn’t start back at Talladega.  It started back at Memphis last year when Brad Keselowski wrecked Edwards and the No. 60 still came back to finish 6th at Memphis. 
• 2 – You rub fenders with another driver on the final lap of a race, you better expect to get hit back and sometimes there are major consequences when you do get tapped.
• 3 – NASCAR proved how biased they can be, they let Keselowski wreck anyone he pleases and get a sloppy five month probation. 

So Joe?  What really happened to that race on Saturday being Good Hard Racing?  I have listened to probably 100 Dale Earnhardt Sr., fans that sat and told me “You don’t compare what Sr did to Edwards, and when you are a seven time champ you can do what you want.”  Well I am to this point with any fan that thinks what Carl did was dirty on Saturday, and what Dale Earnhardt did on August 28, 1999 was not you are so out on a loop, you need to go into a mental institution.  Dale Earnhardt said in victory lane “I just wanted to rattle his cage.”  Referring to when he put the bumper to Terry Labonte down the FRONT STRETCH at Bristol.  No people not in the corner like everyone has griped about for these past four days, but on the straightaway and probably at the same high speed because at Bristol you carry speed.

It wasn’t the only time I have seen that, but people back then thought it was good hard racing.  Now it is dirty racing?  And this coming from fans that supported the Intimidator?  Well I am sorry but this makes NASCAR look bad when they tell these guy’s to ‘have at it.’  While your most legendary and liked driver was the dirtiest of them all.

NASCAR before you decide to make a rule, put your review board on it first.

There’s an old saying – Mess with the bull, you get the horns

Yes, fans, drivers, crew chiefs and owners – that has been one of the oldest saying’s among drivers since we began.  And Brad Keselowski is finding it out this season that when you mess with Carl Edwards you do get the big horns.  Saturday night’s race in Gateway provided a prime example that some drivers just don’t take anything off of these young drivers that like to rub fenders with them.

Earlier this season, Edwards showed that he would not be taking anything off of young Brad Keselowski anymore.  People forgot that it was last April when the young driver sent Edwards airborne at Talladega and into the fence.  Wow.  It’s amazing how people can forget that a driver can do it to someone else but it can’t happen to them and them take it?  Yeah it sounds like this situation altogether, seriously.  It just seems as if the driver from Michigan can wreck people, yet it can’t happen to him?

There are just some drivers that don’t take being pushed.  Carl Edwards – is one of them.

“The way it went, he bumped me and he finished wherever he finished and I still won the race,” Edwards said. “That’s the only way I could see the race turning out fair.”

“That’s my job, to win the race, and to make sure I don’t get walked on or get something taken away from me that’s mine,” he said. “I’m sure tempers are up right now, but hopefully after looking at it we can each step in the other’s shoes and see it from the other perspective.”

Fact is Keselowski did mess with the wrong bull.  And those that don’t like what the result was, well it happened and it has happened before.  Dale Earnhardt took out Terry Labonte at Bristol in both the 1995 and 1998 races at Bristol, he took out Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip numerous times.  But yes, how does time make people forget how one of the sports most legendary drivers raced.   Also are we forgetting that NASCAR wanted more rivalries at the beginning of the season?  And told the boys “have at it!”

This is a very dangerous sport that we watch and our drivers are in.  When you step into the car, you have to remember there are risks, and I think that the entire Keselowski family is forgetting that.   This is hardcore racing, and its bringing a fiery rivalry back into the sport that it needed to bring back ratings.  While a lot think it was wrong, I don’t.  And I have to tell those that argue it, I won’t back off on my opinion because I think what happened was right.  The young driver has been asking for it, and needs learn to take things like a man and not have his father take up for him.  NASCAR already has told one driver’s father to back out and let his boy stand up for himself. Tom Logano had the same problem and now maybe the elder Keselowski will get it as well.

It’s just time for Brad to remember – Mess with the Bull, Get the Horns.

Has Edwards and Osborne come to that point?

I think that there just comes a time in a driver/crew chief relationship that there are problems that can’t be fixed.  

It is like a marriage that has fallen apart over time.  There are some that last a whole career, and then there are just some that just lose that click that they once had.  In my book, I think that Carl Edwards and Bob Osborne have come to that point in their relationship where something has to be done to get the 99 back on track.  Last weekend was a very disappointing weekend to see.  When a driver of Edwards caliber falls a lap down so early in an event and the crew chief can’t figure out what to do to fix an issue, that tells you there are major problems flowing through the team.

I can remember in the late 90s,  Jeff Burton and Frankie Stoddard were an amazing duo in this very same race car.  Burton and Stoddard were put together after long time veteran Buddy Parrott retired from Roush Racing.  The two won 12 races with one another.  But following the 2001 season, the two lost their click and seperated when Burton decided he wanted to have a new crew chief. 

I think that there just comes a time when these issues arise up and become a problem.  Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham were an amazing pair but they lost their click and seperated after a long term deal and three titles.  I believe that this year has come to a point where there has not been any change on the 99, and it could be at best if a new crew chief is brought into the 99 pit box.   Do I have an answer for who should replace Osborne?  No.  But there is definetly someone out there that could figure out these problems on the car and click with Carl Edwards.

I think one name that might come up if a change comes about is Todd Parrott who is over the R&D department at Roush Fenway.  Parrott is an extraordinary crew chief in the series, and has a resume that comes with several Daytona 500 wins, and a championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999.  I think that it is going to take someone with experience and determination to get the 99 car back into the form that they were in 2008.