With the furor over the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski incident finally dying down more than a week after the two tangled famously at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR wants to make sure the bad blood between the two is over for good. Or at least for now.
NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Wednesday that officials from the sanctioning body will meet with the two drivers and their respective team owners at some point this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Food City 500.
What Pemberton wouldn’t discuss is what is likely to be said at those meetings. But it’s a pretty good bet there will be a stern warning to both drivers to stay away from each other.
In April 2009 at Talladega Superspeedway, the two made contact at the start-finish line on the final lap of the race. Keselowski won, Edwards bounced off the hood of Ryan Newman’s car and into the catchfence separating the cars from the grandstands.
At Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7, the two locked horns again, this time twice. The first contact, which occurred early in the race, resulted in Edwards going into the wall and losing more than 100 laps for repairs.
The second contact occurred two laps before the scheduled end of the Kobalt Tools 500, when Edwards deliberately bumped Keselowski, turning his car sideways, whereupon it rolled upside down on its roof at 190 miles per hour. For making that move, Edwards received probation for three races.
Asked what he’d have to say to the two, Pemberton said Wednesday: “I don’t think that commenting on that right now would be the proper thing to do.”
Pemberton did make it clear that all the drivers — not just Edwards and Keselowski — know where the line is that separates right and wrong.
“They have to be responsible,” Pemberton said of all the drivers. “Actions that are way out of line, we’re going to deal with. ... We expect our drivers to race hard and occasionally lean on each other. ... Everybody knows where we stand, drivers included. They know what’s respect and what’s hard racing.”
And without question, there is a strong code among drivers about giving and getting respect on the track. “I’ve been pretty respectful on the track, which has been an asset to me,” said Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. “Some guys go out there and ruffle feathers and say they don’t care and think they can get away with whatever they want. Well, the veterans are going to show them that’s not the way it is.”
Truex said he learned that lesson early in his Cup career, when he was a lap down and got spun out at Bristol by Jeff Gordon.
“We fixed the car and I’m riding around just to finish the race and he’s coming to pass me, and I made it difficult on him,” Truex said of Gordon. “I didn’t do anything but make it difficult. I tried to go as fast as I could and kind of hung him up on the outside. Well, Tony Stewart was behind him, and Tony Stewart comes up behind me and spins me out for no reason. After the race, he says, ‘You can do whatever the hell you want to him, but don’t mess me up.’”
Lesson learned.
“I ended up getting wrecked twice in one race,” said Truex. “And I figured at that point, if you have a problem with somebody, you wait until after the race and you go talk to them about it. That’s the best way to go about it. You don’t go out there and wreck people on purpose, mess with the outcome of the race and possibly injure people.”
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