Daily NASCAR

Say what you want about Bruton Smith, you can’t accuse the guy of not speaking his mind. And you can bet when there are eager reporters around him the gospel according to Bruton is about to be preached.

Though it might have gotten lost in the noise about Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, Smith took time this past weekend to give his take on the state of the sport, and the changes he would like to see made.

Among his comments, Smith lamented his investment in Motorsports Authentics calling it the “worst decision I have ever made in my business life.” He also said he believes he can get a Kentucky Cup race on the schedule for next season (see stories here, here and here).

Always interesting though were Smith’s suggestions on how to improve the sport. He suggested:

• NASCAR give Las Vegas a second Cup date to finish out the season and give Homestead California’s second date
• Consider changing the points system
• Make the fields smaller to eliminate start and park teams which he called a disgrace
• Alter the payout system, making wins worth more, to entice drivers to run more aggressively

I haven’t been the biggest advocate of moving the end of the year banquet to Las Vegas, but it clearly is a market that embraces the sport. Could they support two races a year? Probably. And why not finish the season in the place where you’re going to hold the banquet?

Smith said the health of the sport will be tied to the venues on NASCAR’s schedule. I think he makes an important point that the sport needs to stage events where the market is most likely to embrace the product. Unfortunately for Smith, NASCAR isn’t too likely to take dates away from the France family controlled ISC.

Another point Smith made was the need to remove the emphasis of points racing. Do you tune in every week to see your favorite driver run conservatively in order to maintain his points position? I’m guessing the answer is no. While I agree with him on that point I think altering the payout system penalizes those underfunded teams who do actually run full races (ex. Front Row Motorsports). I can’t say I have a better suggestion on how to get drivers to be more aggressive on track though.

On the topic of start and parks (though I could care less) I’m warming to the idea of making fields smaller. Maybe we need to go back to having the size of fields fluctuate depending on which track we’re at. It would redistribute the purses and give S+P’s less of an opportunity to participate.

I can’t say I agree with everything Smith said or suggested, but some of it made sense. For all his eccentricities I think he does a good job of understanding the wants and needs of fans. As one of the sport’s biggest stakeholders NASCAR ought to bring Bruton Smith to the table a little more often.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Carl Edwards, NASCAR Crashes

It was more like a pat on the back than a slap on the wrist.

In fact, NASCAR practically gave Carl Edwards a “high-five” Tuesday afternoon in handing out a meager, guess-we-gotta-do-something, three-race probation to the high wattage driver for his dangerous on-track retaliation Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Footage of Edwards intentionally wrecking Brad Keselowski late in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race — Keselowski’s car launched in the air and slammed down on the retaining wall — has made the network news and piqued interest overseas.

Even the tabloid show Inside Edition was asking NASCAR President Mike Helton questions after his announcement that Edwards would not face any severe penalties for his high speed “gotcha”.

Part of what makes this case both rare and interesting is that there has been so much outrage and so many calls for a driver to be suspended for his actions on-track.

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by Holly CainDespite many calls for a swift and harsh penalty, NASCAR has decided against suspending driver Carl Edwards for an aggressive, retaliatory move in Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Calling the incident “unacceptable” NASCAR President Mike Helton announced Tuesday that the sanctioning body would not fine Edwards or penalize him any championship points, but instead place him on a three-race probation for Sunday’s frightening collision with Brad Keselowski and suggested Edwards and Keselowski need to sit down and “clear the slate.”

“There is a line. … and we’ll step in to maintain law and order when we think that line has been crossed,” Helton said. “There is a balance of wanting to do the right thing. … wanting the teams to race but us needing to maintain law and order too.”

Edwards, more than 100 laps down to the race leaders Sunday, crashed into sixth-place running Keselowski, sending Keselowski’s Dodge airborne and crashing hard on its roof along the front stretch grandstands. And the fact that Keselowski’s car got airborne on a 1.5-mile track was an even bigger issue in all this, according to Helton.

Edwards has repeatedly said he was glad Keselowski wasn’t injured and that he never intended the car to flip into the air. But, he has also maintained that it was absolutely his intent to settle a score with the young driver. Earlier in the race, the two collided and while Keselowski was able to continue racing, Edwards car suffered a lot of damage which was why he was so far off the pace.

Their more famous run-in, however, occured at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April when Keselowski’s car made contact with then race leader Edwards, sending Edwards Ford airborne into the front stretch retaining fence. Debris from the accident injured seven fans. Keselowski went on to win his first — and only — Sprint Cup race.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Carl Edwards, NASCAR Crashes

While the verdict is still out from NASCAR officials on whether to penalize Carl Edwards for a dangerous retaliatory crash he caused late in Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, there has been plenty of judgment rendered elsewhere.

Opinions have varied from those calling for Edwards’ suspension to others shrugging off the whole matter with a wink-wink, “boys will be boys.”

On the far extremes, fan reaction on FanHouse has ranged from calls for this to be considered a criminal matter to those who think Edwards’ target, the young driver Brad Keselowski, “had it coming.”

Still many others are convinced NASCAR is privately enjoying the whole dust-up and will use this as a publicity stunt to promote its next race, two weeks from now, at the traditionally action-packed half-mile, Bristol, Tenn., bullring.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Monday that if there is any further action — “if” being the significant word — it wouldn’t be announced until Tuesday, possibly Wednesday.

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NASCAR policies often ebb and flow in their enforcement. In the past we’ve seen a sanctioning body that really likes to loosen things up when people start complaining; but when that inevitable watershed event occurs enforcement gets ramped up again.

In true NASCAR form, this season brought us one of those promises of lighter enforcement. They wanted to foster an atmosphere of self-policing (within moderation of course). In response to that just more than a month ago Robin Pemberton looked at the gathered media and said, “Boys, have at it.”

Well Sunday in Atlanta, NASCAR got their wish; the boys had at it. After getting wrecked early in the race, Carl Edwards returned to the track 153 laps down and quite clearly took out the guy who helped him into the wall earlier.

That guy, Brad Keselowski, has made a name for himself in his very short career of getting involved in incidents like this one. Remember the Brad K. v. Denny Hamlin feud just a few months ago? Right or wrong, being aggressive and unapologetic about it is his style.

So with that, it was only a matter of time before an incident like this one occurred and it came as no surprise (to me at least) that Brad K. was involved.

I applauded NASCAR’s move before the season began and I still believe it was a good call. I think this incident though should be a wake up call to everyone in the garage. There’s self-policing and then there’s self-policing. Everyone needs to agree this sort of thing can’t be tolerated. Obviously Carl didn’t mean for Keselowski to get airborne, or expect that happen, but the possibility always exists at 200 mph.

That said though, I have a hard time justifying a suspension, and I’d be surprised if NASCAR issued one (famous last words). Even more, of all people to be calling for someone to get suspended for aggressive driving, it’s almost laughable that person is Brad Keselowski. By all means he deserves to be angry for what resulted from the payback; he could have been seriously injured (thankfully he wasn’t). But if ever there was a situation where that old idiom ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ applies, this is it.

No question, it’s unfortunate this happened. Frankly drivers should know better than to do things like this. While I can’t say what the proper punishment should be here, Robin Pemberton has said NASCAR will evaluate the incident further. If there are additional penalties, we’ll likely hear about them by Tuesday.

So what do you think? Was the retaliation justified? What, if any, should the punishment be for retaliating on track?

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