Sport Reacts in Wake of Edwards-Keselowski Dust-Up

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.

The incident happened with seven laps of regulation remaining in the race when Edwards -- running 156 laps down at the time -- turned into Keselowski's sixth-place Dodge. The contact sent Keselowski's car airborne before it slammed roof first into the wall along the front stretch. Keselowski wasn't injured despite the frightening scene.

Edwards, who had collided with Keselowski earlier in the race, was immediately black-flagged and called to a meeting with NASCAR officials. Before heading into the NASCAR hauler, he told the live television broadcast that he never intended the car to go airborne and was glad Keselowski was OK.

Edwards then wrote on his Facebook page later Sunday night:

"My options: Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyone's 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 away.

"Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine.''

The greatest number of people (47 percent) responding to a FanHouse poll on the matter -- more than 65,000 votes were cast -- say that Edwards should be suspended for four races, compared to 27 percent, who felt he shouldn't be suspended at all.

Former driver Kyle Petty, now an analyst for SPEED TV, falls into line with the majority and offered the strongest comments of the day in the network's post-race wrap-up.

"This is a black eye on everybody,'' an impassioned Petty said.

"This is wrong. This was a blatant, flagrant foul and he ought to be parked. He shouldn't show up at Bristol and that's just my opinion.

"Brad Keselowski said the ball's in NASCAR's court. We're going to see if they've got a pair now. I'm just throwing that out there. They need to park him and send him home."

Most of the drivers avoided jumping into the opinion mix. Obviously, they didn't have the luxury of watching the crash live and then again on replay to form opinion and perspective. Plenty were scrambling to avoid the crash, others just weren't in position on the track to see it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who fielded a car for Keselowski in the Nationwide Series the past two seasons, said he didn't see what happened but was glad Keselowski wasn't injured.

"What happened there is between them,'' Earnhardt said. "I've got nothing to do with that.''

Third-place finisher Juan Pablo Montoya didn't witness the accident either but didn't sound entirely surprised it happened either. Last year, he even suggested that Keselowski's team would be well-advised to bring older cars to the track.

"I said that last year because he wrecked a lot of people,'' Montoya said. "I'm sure a lot of people wanted to pay him back. And looking at the TV, somebody did."

Keselowski's Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch won the race in double overtime but was plenty concerned about the incident, which has essentially overshadowed his hard-fought victory.

"I was a bit disturbed by what I had seen,'' Busch said after seeing a replay. "To see a guy that's a hundred laps down take out a guy that's run really well, that was a tough, tough pill to swallow.

"It reminded me of when Keselowski was racing Edwards hard for the win at Talladega, and Edwards ended on the short end of the stick. That was racing for a win. That wasn't where you were a hundred laps down.''

Ryan Briscoe, who drives for Penske's IZOD IndyCar Series team was similarly struck by the situation, terming Edwards' move, "video game style.''

"I think Brad put it best saying, you could kill someone in the grandstands doing that,'' Briscoe told FanHouse Tuesday.

"I haven't done much stock car racing and I think when you've got big fenders around you, you feel like you can get away with a lot more. But, I think, on the front stretch where you've got fans just feet from the race track and there's just a catch-fence, that's not good.

"Maybe a bump in the turn if you're upset, if you have to retaliate on the race track.

"I think Carl was in a bit of a fit over nothing. Maybe it's just an old grudge. Maybe he was just upset, but that's where the team needs to get on the radio and say, 'dude, chill out.'

"You could see it coming and I know if I was in that kind of mind frame out there, Roger [Penske] would have been right in my ear saying, 'settle down, we'll deal with this off track. There are other ways to deal with this situation.' "

For now, NASCAR heads into the Sprint Cup Series off weekend tight-lipped about any action beyond saying they discussed the matter with Edwards. They could decide the talking-to was enough, or short of a suspension, perhaps they will fine Edwards money or dock him points.

Driver Ryan Newman offered one option:

"I think it would have been a whole lot better if they'd got back and got to fight it out a little bit,'' Newman said. "That would be a lot more interesting than getting black-flagged.

"But I don't know entirely what all happened and who hit who first and if it stems from six years ago or not. But either way they've made their call and it is what it is."