For those that missed it #99 Carl Edwards intentionally wrecked #12 Brad Keselowski in the closing laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway. What Edwards did not intend to have happen was the #12 car to go airborne and land on its roof potentially causing serious injury to Keselowski. Fortunetly Keselowski walked away from the wreck and no fans where injured.
What was NASCARs response to this type of retaliation? A huge fine? Lose of drivers points? Suspension? Nope. Edwards had to sit out the last few laps of the race, he was over 150 laps down anyway and a 3 race probation.
When I read that I had a huge WTF moment. Back in 2004 Dale Jr. was fined $10,000 and lost 25 drivers points after winning his 5th race at Talladaga Superspeedway and in the heat of the moment he let the “S” word slip out on National TV.
So the message appears to be this, it is ok to retaliate against another driver even if it almost kills or seriously injures him or a fan because it brings in the ratings, but heaven forbid in the heat of the moment you say “It don’t mean s— right now. Daddy’s won here 10 times.”
What NASCAR should have done instead was send a serious message that retaliation will not be tolerated no matter what the circumstances might be. Edwards should have been fined $100,000 and lost 100 drivers/owners points. He probably should have been forced to sit out the next race and placed on probation till the end of the year. That would have sent the rest of the drivers a strong message that NASCAR will now longer tolerate drivers retaliating no matter what your intention was.