Have at it boys? (Part 2)

With the checkered flag in the air on Saturday night, Carl Edwards renewed the rivalry with Brad Keselowski that clearly resides only in his own mind. On the final lap, the pair dove into turn 1 at Gateway International Raceway two wide. Both Edwards and Keselowski went wide into the turn and slid up the track. Keselowski caught the rear end of Edwards and moved him just sideways enough to get him loose and that allowed Keselowski to take the lead down the backstretch. Keselowski took the advantage into turn 3 and as they came off of turn four with the checkered flag in the air, Edwards turned left into Keselowski’s rear quarter panel, sending the #22 Dodge spinning while Edwards moved on by for the win.

For Brad and Carl, the pair have a history together. However, most of their history on the track has been caused by Carl’s expecting Brad to give room to a more established veteran and Brad’s unwillingness to give up ground.

Many will remember what happened at Atlanta when Carl Edwards came back out onto the track with a wrecked race car and intentionally wrecked Brad Keselowski at one of the fastest tracks in NASCAR. Keselowski’s Dodge spun around and then flipped right through the trioval and hit the catch fence. The entire world then watched as NASCAR gave Edwards a tap on the wrist. A meeting with both drivers and car owners along with simply a 3 race probation for Edwards.

Tonight, Brad hadn’t done a thing to Carl.

“Oh, but he hit me!” says Carl in victory lane. He talked about Keselowski over driving the turn and bumping him out of the way. Last I checked in the replay, Edwards over drove the turn as well. In addition, Carl, go see Days of Thunder. He didn’t bump you, he rubbed you. And rubbin’ is racing.

I see a huge distinction between rubbing a driver and moving him out of the way and Carl Edwards’ actions at Gateway last night. When you move a driver out of the way, the goal is to switch places with him. You go to first, he goes back to second or maybe third. What Carl Edwards did, was turn into him, take the win, and put Brad somewhere in the back.

One of the guys I know through the sim racing community writes NASCAR features for Bleacher Report, a fan sports site. Jory is right on with his opinion on the matter. NASCAR had a chance to really stand and say, bumping and rubbing is one thing, blantantly wrecking a competitor is another.

After seeing the hits Keselowski took while he sat sideways on the front stretch while 25-30 other cars ran as hard as they could for the checkered flag, I don’t know how anyone on Carl Edwards’ crew could celebrate that victory. What their driver did was classless and disrespectful. Not just disrespectful to Keselowski, but disrespectful to himself, his crew, his team, and his sport.

When you watch the post-race reactions, the words of Brad’s father Bob, a longtime racer and the holder of 87 starts in NASCAR’s top series, including a Camping World Truck Series win at Richmond, ring true.

“Brad got into Carl getting down into turn 1. Racing. They bumped. They rubbed. Typical racing deal. Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta. Tried to kill the kid. I’m sick and tired of this, I’ll get my own damn uniform back out and take care of this. He ain’t gonna kill my boy. He just overreacted so bad. If he wanted to bump Brad, it’s one thing. Don’t drive him through the inside guard rail, don’t put him in the grandstands at Atlanta. That’s asinine,” said Bob when being interviewed by ESPN following the race. Asinine’s a good word for it. I had to look it up.

You could see the emotion in Bob’s eyes. He was angry at Carl for making a stupid, classless move and then when he said “He ain’t gonna kill my boy,” you could see that emotion welling up in him.

Bob’s a racer. He understands this sport is dangerous. He understands there’s a risk every time his son goes out on that track that he might not come back. He comes from an era where drivers would beat and bang and their emotions were allowed to hang out. However, they had respect for each other and they usually knew better than to flip a guy into a catchfence at 190 mph or put a guy sideways on the front stretch in front of 25-30 cars doing 120 mph at him.

But Bob’s response begs the question, why are we allowing drivers to make it even more dangerous than it already is by allowing them to use their cars as 3500 pound weapons at will?

Following the race, Carl was mostly unapologetic. The first words out his mouth in victory lane when asked about what happened with Brad were, “I just couldn’t let him take the win from me.”

Carl, he didn’t take the win from you. He earned it. You didn’t.

When Carl was asked later in the victory lane interview whether this incident would impact how the two of them raced down the road later in the season, of course, he decided that it shouldn’t. ”I hope not. We raced really well there for like 10 laps straight and he got in over his head and tried to hard and it was at my expense. And that was at his expense.”

Now, let me get Carl’s reasoning right. The pair have a handful of run-ins over the 2009 season and Carl’s decision is to wreck Brad at Atlanta in March as the culmination of those run-ins. However, when Carl starts something he doesn’t think he should get paid back? Do as I say, not as I do, Carl?

Meanwhile, NASCAR will likely stand by and do nothing. Why? It’s a ratings bonanza. I give it just a couple days before it’s featured in an ESPN commercial for the races next week. This is where NASCAR could take a hint from the NHL.

The NHL has fights. The NHL has penalties. You don’t see those advertising the next game. Why? Because it’s not the right part of the game. It’s not that virtuous part of the game that you should be trying to extol. NASCAR should step up and not only penalize it, they should tell ESPN that if they want to keep their television rights, they won’t advertise with it.

The question remains. What will NASCAR do now? They’ve been given an opportunity to right the wrong choice they made this March following Carl and Brad’s run in at Atlanta. Will they do it or will “have at it boys” remain once again the definition of intentionally wrecking a competitor?

I’ll let Jory’s words be my closing because they are absolutely true.

“It took the death of Dale Earnhardt for the sport to realize it was greatly behind on the safety aspect for it’s drivers. Let us hope it doesn’t take another death for the sport to realize the error of its ways once again.”