Monthly Archives: March 2010

I have seen drivers take one another out of races many times in the years that I have watched racing.  There have been guys come out of the last lap and nail the other just as Carl Edwards did last week in Atlanta.  In the moment it happened a lot of people expected a heavy fine, points penalty, and even heavier a suspension, even fellow diehard blogger Gabbycat did.  But here is where I think a lot of people that were against Carl Edwards’ action this past weekend didn’t think, Brad Keselowski had been asking for this, since he first got that ride with Jr Motorsports back in 2007 when his truck team dropped him; he has been wrecking drivers right and left

I know of several instances since last September that he has taken out veteran drivers and it has formed into two major rivalries on the track with Carl and Denny Hamlin.  He took out Hamlin at Dover, then at Phoenix, and Hamlin repaid him in the season finale NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Homestead Miami Speedway.  The facts are there, this guy has been asking for it.  Had Edwards not done it, how much longer would it have been had someone else paid their dues?  I think had the 12 not went into the air like it did, Edwards’ actions would be considered a great move and he would be considered a hero, but since it did go airborne people are considering it a harsh crime and felt that Carl should have gotten suspended.

When a driver like Keselowski in the field, it can be a worry.  A lot of fans feel he has overstayed his welcome and needed to be put in his place.  In the past, Carl Edwards has shown he’d stand toe to toe with anyone in the field.  He had a rivalry with Stewart back in 06′, he and his own teammate Matt Kenseth had an incident back in 2007 at Martinsville where it appeared Carl was about to swing on Matt, and in 2008; he clashed with Kevin Harvick.  He has had the nice guy look, but down deep he isn’t afraid to stand up to anyone. 

NASCAR had to see that Keselowski was getting out of hand and they had to know that someone was going to take it upon themself with him.  I simply think that there are some drivers that can only take so much and Edwards is one of them.  I have heard Keselowski say that races people how he races them.  Well I hate to break it to him, Carl did that Sunday.  Keselowski has raced just about everyone with a reckless rant that many drivers are sick and tired of.  The fact that the young driver has taken out several drivers numerous times and never taken the heat for it shows he has been asking for this for some time now. 

Here I looked back at some incidents where Keselowski has taken out Edwards, and several other drivers in the last year. 

• At Charlotte in 2008, Keselowski’s feud with Hamlin began under caution when Hamlin made contact with the young driver in the Nationwide Series.  A fight happened on pit road after the race finished off between the drivers and their teams.
• The Talladega Aaron’s 499 – He made contact with Carl Edwards and sent him into the fence, while it was a racing incident, chances are it could have been avoided.  Fans were injured in the incident and surprisingly; Carl Edwards walked away ok.
• Dover last September in the Nationwide Series event Keselowski took out Denny Hamlin for the first of a few incidents between the two drivers.   It happened with ten laps left in the race and it parked the 20 car of Hamlin. 
• Two weeks later at Fontana, he took out Hamlin and Greg Biffle and it really had Hamlin fiery red.
• In Memphis, Keselowski got into the back of Edwards’ No. 60 Save a Lot Ford and sent him spinning down the backstretch at the short track.  Edwards was not happy as he went from having a chance to win, to finishing 6th after falling back through the field with 20 remaining.
• In Phoenix last fall, Keselowski took out Hamlin once again and Hamlin vowed vengeance when he told the world that he would take care of the problem himself in Hometead. Kyle Busch’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff, who said, “Somebody’s going to get angry and [retaliate] at a higher-speed racetrack.” 
• Hamlin did that by spinning Keselowski out in the Nationwide Series event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
• In Daytona this year, Keselowski and Edwards made contact and it sent Earnhardt Jr., on his roof.

It has all been building on Keselowski to have someone get him back and Carl Edwards finally did last week.  Had that car not flipped and went airborne, chances are a lot more people would have been praising Edwards for what he did, instead of hating on him.

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.

We have completed the first three weeks of the season with little controversy over changes that are planned in the near future.   But there has been a topic that has sparked up since last weekend when NASCAR confiscated the No. 66 Toyota at California one weekend ago.  What has been a major issue for years is teams that start the race and then park their cars after a few laps to make the pay. 

I don’t believe a team should be able to do this.  One reason being, NASCAR shut down one of Jack Roush’s major operations last season when it forced the car owner to go to 4 cars from 5.  That in hand, it took away a car that was atleast competitive and tried to make the entire race and it won one race last season at Talladega.  It was until 1997 and 1998 that we started to see 43 cars start every race, in the late 80s and early 90s, we only seen 30-36 cars starting every weekend.  So if we were to see NASCAR drop the field down to 36, as we had been then with 36 competitive cars in the field compared to a field with 30 competitive race cars and 13 start and parkers who are being lapped 6 laps into the race, I’d take it. 

Now onto the other topic.  We’re three races into the season, and fans are already thinking that the 99 car needs more changes.  Well Bob Osborne is a great crew chief and I’ll stand up and debate that with anyone that says other wise.  Of Edwards’ 16 wins, 15 of them came from having Osborne on the pit, the other was at Texas in 2009 when Osborne was on a suspension.  In 2006, the team went winless and it took until the 15th race of 2007 to get back to victory lane.  It was a very hard stretch to endure but this team did and it make them better the following year when they won 9 races in 2008.

As in football when a team goes to losing, the first team that is replaced is the ball coach, same goes for racing with the crew chief.  I was reminded but a good friend of a situation back in 2002.  Jeff Burton had been working with Frankie Stoddard for a few years and had quite a bit of success with him.  The two scored 14 wins with one another in the years that they worked with one another.  Burton, however, wanted a crew chief change ater the struggles the team had in 2002 and he got what he wanted.  Here is the downside, Burton’s struggles didn’t get any better and in the month of August during the 2004 season he departed and Carl Edwards took over the ride. 

Nowadays, drivers have clauses in their contracts that prohibit teams owners and team managers from making crew chief changes.  I am sure that Edwards had it put in his contract after the 2006 season when Roush decided to make a dramatic change with Osborne and an unknown crew chief.  It didn’t pan out and Osborne was moved back at the end of the season.

I think fans have to realize that teams go through struggles.  It is part of the sports world, I can’t think of any one team that hasn’t had a struggling season since I’ve been alive.  The Patriots were a winning icon for years and the last couple of season’s have fell off the face of the earth as a competitive mark in the NFL.  Years ago, Richard Childress Racing was the team to put and they’ve struggled since Harvick won the Daytona 500 in 2007.