Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski have been all of the talk in NASCAR the past few days, after their last-lap shenanigans in the Nationwide Series Race at Gateway International Raceway (Madison, Ill.) last weekend. After contact was made with Edwards car in the first turn of the final lap, Edwards deliberately turned into Keselowski's car on the final straightaway, sending Keselowski into the wall. Edwards went on to win the race.
The two were both placed on probation for the remainder of the season, with Edwards losing 60 Nationwide points and also receiving a fine of $25,000.
Both drivers discussed the issue at length today during media time.
Edwards:
I believe that he did not make a mistake. That was an intentional, I mean, he moved me out of the way to gain an advantage and it almost worked. He almost won the race, so that's what he did. It doesn't really matter what my opinion is. NASCAR knows what happened and he knows what happened and he knows what happened and that's why they penalized him ... I'm telling you that as a race car driver, and any other race car driver will tell you, that that wasn't a slip up, and if it was a slip up, which, hey, he might convince himself that it's a slip up, which, hey, he might convince himself that it's a slip up, you have a little bit of insurance that you leave yourself when you go down in the corner like that. And on the last lap, you might not say, 'I'm gonna drive down in this corner and hit this guy,' but it's real easy to say, 'I'm gonna drive down in this corner a little bit harder than I have and consequences be damned and this guy is going to be the one that pays.' So it's reasonable that he's not lying, but I believe he's not being completely honest that that was a mistake. He's too good of a race car driver and I know that.
Keselowski:
It's (his probation) good because now no one will expect me to go out there and retaliate against Carl. I know some of my fans got really upset [about the probation], but I wouldn't say I was surprised. I think what it says is NASCAR doesn't want me to go out there and intentionally wreck Carl. That's great. I didn't want to. Now I don't have to worry about that.
Some other drivers' thoughts:
Kyle Busch:
Cool. It's not me. It doesn't matter. to me, its not my fight, not something I care to be involved in. I haven't been involved in something like that in my career. It just shows that I'm not as bad of a guy as they make it out to be.
Matt Kenseth:
I don't really have much of an opinion on what's going on with those guys because I don't really know the whole history. I haven't been in the car or in conversations they've had afterwards. I mean, there are probably a lot of things that maybe we haven't seen that we're not thinking of that led to the boiling point. Certainly, if you just look at the incident on Saturday and don't think of anything else, it seemed like it was pretty extreme and over the top, but I think there has probably been a lot that led up to that.
Ryan Newman:
I don't think NASCAR has taken care of the situation. I think they've issues what is that for Carl, his second probation this year? Yeah. See I don't know what probation actually means anymore (laughs). So yeah, when we used to get probation for the season, and then when you crash somebody and put them upside down and they almost get killed, you get probation for three races. I don't quite understand that.
Kurt Busch:
I think the way that it has played out is that you have someone who is four or five years into the sport and a new guy. Carl has raced a lot in the Nationwide Series and some of his tendencies are Nationwide-type things. I see that a lot of the time when he races on the Cup side. He's doing some Nationwide things and until he decides that Cup is where he wants to be, maybe that's how he'll drive.
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