Carl Edwards Deserves a HUGE Suspension

[Dirty Sanchez]

I know NASCAR is looking to spice things up by letting the drivers police themselves, but that stunt that Edwards pulled today (156 laps down) was absolutely brutal. Say whatever you want about Brad K, you don't put someone running in the top 6 out of the race.

NASCAR has to come down hard on him because he could of killed someone, either Brad K, or someone in the crowd, which would of been a PR nightmare for NASCAR.

[avssakic]

doubt suspension......prolly fine, points, probation

[Dirty Sanchez]

Yeah that's the norm, but that was pretty dangerous though. With Edwards being a bigger name, and sponsors being pretty tough to come by, that's probably what NASCAR will probably do. But, if they want to really lay the law down, putting him on the sidelines for a race or two would really send a message.

[jerseykingpin]

Edwards should sit for 6 races his reck wasnt Brads fault if you looked at it Edwards came down in to him and he even said it Then to reck someone like that they should hit him with a nice fine sit em for 6 races and a big point hit and any other nasty cry baby bull shit that he dose sit him for the year

[blueghost]

love to see cuzin carl on the sidelines what a goof no chance for me to win soooooooo i will take out and flip cause a wreck and show that that his smile is the phonyest one in all of nascar

[Naz18]

reck lol

[your pixel army]

I hope he gets a week suspension. What a tool.

[hawk 5]

He could of sent his message at so many different and better times. This made him look like the bad guy. Just not smart. He needs to be suspended for stupidity worst than the pay back. Jeff Gordon pays people back, but never this obvious. Stupid.

[Reno Paul]

Looked like obvious payback to me when Edwards well out of the race cost Keselowski a top 10 finish.


NASCAR looking closely into incident of 'retaliation'

Edwards could face additional punishment for flipping BK

By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
March 7, 2010
08:12 PM EST

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HAMPTON, Ga. -- Brad Keselowski called for fellow Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards to be suspended for at least one race after Edwards wrecked him Sunday in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
But Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, said the governing body would take its time in examining all the facts before deciding what to do with Edwards, whose No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford was ordered to the garage after wrecking the No. 12 of Keselowski and sending it airborne on the frontstretch on Lap 323 of what was a scheduled 325-lap event. Pemberton and other NASCAR officials, including president Mike Helton, met with Edwards following Sunday's race -- but Pemberton said they would discuss the incident further "internally" on Monday and Tuesday before announcing any additional penalties for Edwards by late Tuesday afternoon.
The history





Talladega 2009

Brad Keselowski wins and sends Carl Edwards for a ride.

• Watch

Atlanta 2010, Part 1

Edwards goes up the track after a tap from Keselowski.

• Watch

Atlanta 2010, Part 2

Edwards returns to the track and takes out Keselowski.

• Watch

Now what?



“
... we will discuss it further ... We don't rush to judgment on Sunday nights and make penalties.

”
-- ROBIN PEMBERTON





"It looked like it could have been a payback from the No. 99 on the No. 12," Pemberton said.
The two drivers have a muddled past, with Keselowski having turned Edwards and sent his car airborne and into the catchfence at Talladega Superspeedway last spring as they both raced for a win. Edwards said after that incident that it was at least partially his fault for coming down on Keselowski, and that Keselowski merely did what he had to do to win the race. Edwards seemed to blame the horrific wreck, which caused some injuries to fans in the stands, more on restrictor-plate racing than the driving of Keselowski.
But then the two drivers added to their history of getting together earlier during Sunday's race when they bumped on Lap 41 and Edwards ended up getting shoved into the No. 20 Toyota of Joey Logano, effectively ruining both of their days.
Keselowski, meanwhile, drove away from that incident and went on to put together a solid run for the day while Edwards spent much of the afternoon having his car repaired in the garage. Edwards returned to the track on Lap 190 after spending 150 laps in the garage, and appeared to purposely wreck Keselowski when Keselowski appeared headed for a top-five finish.
"To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that's not cool," Keselowski said. "You could have killed someone in the grandstands. I know that it's a little ironic that it's me saying that, but at least I didn't do it intentionally [when it happened at Talladega].
"It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they're going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands. It's not cool to wreck someone at 195 mph."
Pemberton indicated that Edwards more or less admitted in the post-race meeting with NASCAR officials that he intended to wreck Keselowski, but that he did not mean to send him airborne. Keselowski's car ended up landing upside down, nearly crushing in the driver's side of the roof, and was completely destroyed in the aftermath.
Keselowski was shaken up after the wreck and needed assistance getting removed from the car, but eventually was cleared at the AMS infield care center.
"Carl said he got into him; he said he didn't expect the result," Pemberton said.
Earlier, Edwards spoke briefly with the media and attempted to explain his thinking.
"Brad knows the deal between him and I," Edwards said. "The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we're out here to race and people have to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people's safety.
"I wish it wouldn't have gone like it did, but I'm glad he's OK and we'll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won't get in any more incidents together. That would be the best thing."
Keselowski told reporters that he believed Edwards took "three swipes" at him before connecting, and that Edwards deserves to be suspended for at least one race. He also defended what had occurred during their first incident Sunday.
"He cut down on me on a restart and I lifted; I couldn't lift fast enough for him," Keselowski said. "I lifted for him to let him in, but I was there. I don't know what more you can do.
"[Keep the] car low, that's what they say. So I was underneath him, tried to cut him a break. It was too late, though; he turned down. I apologized to him, but there was nothing that I could do in that situation."
Naturally, Edwards didn't see the first incident quite the same way.
"We were on the restart and I was going for the bottom. I knew Brad was peeking inside, but I thought he'd give me just a little bit of room and he didn't and we ended up overlapping," Edwards said.
"I had it saved and I guess I got into the 20 car at the very top of the race track. I didn't see that part of it, but it's so frustrating for a number of reasons, most of which is that I love racing here. ... I know Brad has made his career on being super-aggressive. We both had a part in it and it's not his fault, but it's just a little too aggressive overall, I think, for that early in the race and caused us to wreck."
Asked if he thought there was a connection between Sunday's incidents and what happened last season at Talladega, Pemberton replied: "It was the same two cars, we know that. I would say there seems to be a history between those two drivers. ... It's always a concern when you see retaliation and there are different levels of it. Like I said, we will discuss it further at the [NASCAR Research & Development Center] early this week.
"We don't rush to judgment on Sunday nights and make penalties. That's why we take our time and go back and talk about it some more."

[jerseykingpin]

He said in the interveiw that he ment to crash him

[jackpot269]

WOW! I missed the race yesterday wish I had seen it !!!!!!!!!!

[smitch124]

Edwards did admit to crashing him, he just didn't wanna flip him into the air They shouldn't even let guys who are 155 laps down back in the race anyway. Edwards had little to lose and was there only to cause havoc, string this dude up, he coulda killed someone.

[Ch3fDan]

I don't think it has anything to do with letting teams that are several laps down back into the race. Carl is a bit of a hot head and he ****ed up, it's as simple as that. When the entire weeks effort is put into a car and a strategy and something happens putting the team down several laps they have the right to work and put that car back out there.

[BigdaddyQH]

Keselowski is one of the most hated drivers on the circut. He has wrecked many a driver. No doubt that this was payback. No doubt that it went too far. But you can blame those stupid wings on the backs of the cars. Wings that NASCAR is finally getting rid of. Did Keselowski have this coming? Absolutely. They should wreck him in every race until he learns his lesson. He is a terrible driver. He could care less about other drivers. If it were me, I would put him into the wall, not flip him.

[your pixel army]

I don't understand all this hate towards Keselowski. I didn't like him at first, but yesterday I started talking with my dad about how I was really coming around to him. He's not the same vanilla driver that sits in almost every other car. He's an extremely talented rookie who wants to win now. He's not willing to take bullshit from drivers (see 11, 99) that think they're entitled to positions on the track. I like that.

Edwards confirmed himself as a class A tool. 155 laps down, and he goes out seeking revenge for a crash that he himself initiated on lap ~40? He called Brad's hit malicious, but then took that back after seeing on the replay that it was he who came down on Edwards. And let's say Brad didn't try to let up (which he did), why would Edwards try to come down on a car he knows probably wont give him an inch? Does he really feel entitled to position on the track, or is he just an idiot?

He deserves a race suspension. Take out your revenge when you're racing for position. Take your revenge in a turn where you're not going to flip someone over. If anyone should know about cars flipping in the trioval...

And those blaming the wing---it's not the wing that's allowing these cars to flip. Go watch Elliot Sadler's flip at 'Dega in 2003. It's a car that's designed to go 190mph forward getting turned around. You're still going to see cars flip with a spoiler.

[andywend]

Carl Edwards needs to be suspended for the rest of the 2010 NASCAR season.

Anything less is sending the worst kind of message.

[MickChunky]

He deserves a race suspension. Take out your revenge when you're racing for position. Take your revenge in a turn where you're not going to flip someone over. If anyone should know about cars flipping in the trioval...

Save it for Bristol, isn't that what Bristol is there for? Carl better get something, the way that roof caved in was downright scary. Edwards knows better than to do that on the front stretch, but he's a hot-head and a bully. If he would have got him a lap earlier when he 1st tried it wouldn't have been so bad, but still a car 156 laps down taking out a top 10 car when neither wreck in past was Brad's fault is ridiculous.

[your pixel army]

Carl Edwards needs to be suspended for the rest of the 2010 NASCAR season.

Anything less is sending the worst kind of message.

Make this penalty too harsh, however, you're going down a path you don't want to. You'll completely tone down drivers roughing it up on the track. You wont have Montoya and Stewart getting into each other at Homestead. You'll have less excitement.

However, when they said "have it it, boys", I'm pretty sure most drivers understood that a premeditated crash at 190mph by a car 150 laps down was well over the line.

I hope that the penalty is harsh enough that we don't see anything quite this stupid again. I know that if he would have wrecked one of my drivers I would be calling for his head. However, if the penalty is too harsh, Nascar will be encouraging dull racing.

So where do you put the penalty? A race suspension? 50-150 points and a fat fine? I know I called for the suspension at first, but 100+ points may send the same message without causing too much timidity in other drivers.

I guess we might find out tomorrow (today).

[andywend]

The fact that Edwards was 150 laps down tells the tale.

Its one thing when a driver is in contention and does something really dangerous to improve his position. Even in that instance, some sort of suspension is warranted.

However, in this case, Edwards was completely out of the race and took out the other driver solely to retaliate. If Keslowski was killed in the wreck, then most NASCAR fans would be calling for a life-long suspension. Just because he wasn't injured, I'm not sure if the penalty should be any less harsh.

NASCAR should have a zero tolerance policy for this and the penalty for what Edwards did (CONSIDERING ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES) should be the absolute harshest possible.

The first penalty should be a season long suspension and a 2nd offense should carry lifetime banishment.