Even if you’re not a NASCAR fan, if you have watched your local news over the past couple of days, you have likely seen footage from Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 from the Atlanta Motor Speedway of Carl Edwards spinning Brad Keselowski with 3 laps remaining in the race in retaliation for a run in Edwards and Keselowski had earlier in the race that caused Edwards to wreck his car and spend most of the race in the garage repairing the damage.
If you don’t know the history between Edwards and Keselowski, they’ve tangled on the track before. During last year’s Talladega race, Edwards was leading Keselowski to the finish line when Keselowski bumped Edwards and started a horrifc crash.
For the last couple of days, everyone with in interest in NASCAR has waited for the sanctioning body’s ruling on what, if any, punishment Edwards would receive for his actions. Fans and drivers wondered if Edwards would be suspended, fined, put on probation, or any combination thereof. Today, that ruling came down:
From Nascar.com
NASCAR president Mike Helton on Tuesday announced Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards had been placed on probation for the next three Sprint Cup races as a result of Edwards intentionally wrecking Brad Keselowski this past Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
I think the penalty is extremely lenient and sets a precedent that could easily lead to drivers, crews and possibly fans getting hurt.
Let’s look at the facts:
- Edwards was 150 laps down when he wrecked Keselowski with 3 laps to go. Keselowski had a good race and would have ended up finishing in the Top 10.
- When Keselowski and Edwards got together early in the race, causing Edwards to hit the wall (and Joey Logano), it could be argued that Keselowski could have backed off a little bit and let Edwards complete a pass, but there was nothing in the replays that showed Keselowski intentionally wrecking Edwards.
- Edwards, and others such as driver Kenny Wallace implied that the spin and flip on Sunday was pay back for the Talladega wreck last year. That doesn’t fly with me. For one thing, both drivers were racing for a win. And if you review the video of ‘Dega, Edwards tried putting a block on Keselowski, which had a direct impact on the wreck.
Now that Mike Helton has said, in effect, that a team can fix a car and send their driver back out onto the track for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on a fellow driver who they believe wronged them, with the only punishment being a few weeks of probation, bad things can, and likely will, happen.
If I was in Helton’s position, I’m not sure I would have suspended the team, or Edwards, but I would have stripped the 99 team of their Atlanta purse money, stripped Edwards and Rousch-Fenway racing of 250 points each and put Edwards on probation for the rest of the year. It would have been an appropriate punishment for Edwards, and would have sent the right message to the rest of the NASCAR garage.
The Daily Belch 