While NASCAR drivers figure out how much license they have to play rough on their oval playground, the ruling elders of NASCAR take a rather lax approach to letting them know.
What I assumed, when NASCAR made its "have at 'em" pronouncements in January, was basically that the officials had decided to "let 'em play." The way it works in basketball, right? No more rinky-dink fouls.
It's one of the more common remarks of coaches at courtside.
"Hey! Hey! Let 'em play, will ya?"
Apparently, though, what NASCAR meant was that there would really be no officiating at all. The Sprint Cup Series is like "shirts and skins," with fouls called under some sort of informal honor system.
"Foul!"
"Aw, man, I didn't touch you!"
"Yeah, you did, dummy, 'cause I called a foul."
Once upon a time, NASCAR decided it was too difficult to keep different kinds of cars competitive with one another, so it decided to make the cars all alike. Now NASCAR has decided it's difficult to officiate what goes on, so it's decided to ... literally ... "have at it" ... and ... "let 'em race."
It's astonishing. It's outrageous. But it's consistent. When NASCAR officials decided they were going to let drivers work their difficulties out among themselves, they weren't kidding. Had Judge Roy Bean, and not Mike Helton, been announcing the decision on Tuesday, he wouldn't have changed many words.
Carl Edwards admitted he used his Ford as a battering ram and turned the Dodge of Brad Keselowski during Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500. The race was probably a success for the sponsor since, within the garage, tools, Kobalt and otherwise, were really important. It was a showcase for the entire tool industry.
He got three weeks' probation, which for the entire time I've written about NASCAR, has been a synonym for "nothing."
Old timers can talk all they want about "the good old days," but if you check the records, the moonshiners of the 1940s and '50s never wrecked nearly as often as the upwardly mobile dandies of today. That's because they needed those old Fords to make a moonshine run down to Chattanooga on Monday night. The drivers of today don't have to fix or pay for what they tear up. It shows.
I am not unsympathetic to Edwards' plight. He, like most men who choose to race automobiles for a living, is excitable, competitive and spirited. At some level, Edwards must have cast himself as Will Kane and Keselowski as Frank Miller. In "High Noon" (1952), Kane was the sheriff left all alone to face Miller, who was out to get him.
Kane, of course, had a badge, at least, when he decided "enough is enough" and took on Miller and his gang. Edwards took the law into his own hands.
Another classic movie, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," defines NASCAR's current view of law enforcement.
"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
Kurt Busch picked up his first win of the season in Atlanta. It was also the second straight win in the spring Atlanta race for the Dodge driver, this time with Steve Addington, his brother's former crew chief. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)
At least for now, Kurt Busch has the upper hand in the family.
Kurt and his younger brother, Kyle, are both legitimate stars in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. Kurt won the 2004 (now Sprint, then) Nextel Cup championship, and his second consecutive victory in Atlanta Motor Speedway's Kobalt Tools 500 was the 21st of his career. Kyle, nearly seven years younger, has won 16 times in the sport's premier level.
There's another notable connection. Kurt Busch's crew chief, Steve Addington, was Kyle Busch's crew chief until this season. After Kyle fell short of making the Chase in 2009, Dave Rogers replaced Addington ... and Kurt hired him.
Kurt Busch made the Chase last year, finishing fourth in the final point standings. Crew chief Pat Tryson moved to Team Red Bull and driver Martin Truex Jr. at season's end.
"I'll tell one thing that changed, and it changed for the better," said Kurt. "Steve Addington has taught me how to drive cars differently, how to look at them differently ... When you get 'up on the wheel' for somebody like Steve, good things happen."
"I'm still great friends with Kyle," said Addington, "but it's a good feeling. It's a relief in a certain way."
Kurt Busch said his latest victory was particularly satisfying.
"I feel like we won the race outright," he said. "No doubt we did our job on pit road. No doubt we did our job on long runs, and I think we hit the right combination for restarts. That's what I'm proudest of."
Thanks to NASCAR's new overtime policies and several late crashes, the race ran 16 extra laps. Addington said there was no strategy capable of preparing for such a scenario.
"We tried to keep the balance on our car," he said. "We were good on fuel for all three green-white-checkered restarts, even if we went to (the limit of) three.
"We just stuck with what we'd been doing all day."
But Kurt Busch said this was no time to relax.
"We need to have some more consistency," he said. "We've been competitive in three out of the four races so far, and the race we weren't as competitive as the others was our best finish (before Atlanta).
"That's what a championship team does."
HAMPTON, Ga. - What happened at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday was predictable and understandable, but that doesn't mean Carl Edwards shouldn't have to pay some penalty for "dumping" Brad Keselowski near the end of the Kobalt Tools 500.
Why is it understandable? Edwards thought, in the supercharged atmosphere of his cockpit, that Keselowski had it coming. He's not alone in that view. Late last year, Denny Hamlin made no bones about it when he spun out Keselowski. He'd vowed to do it a week earlier.
There were two differences. One was that Keselowski's Dodge turned over at Atlanta Motor Speedway after Edwards' Ford bumped and drove through it. The other was that, unlike Hamlin, Edwards said he was sorry.
Sorry, of course, doesn't cut it, as any number of miscreants could attest.
But there's no need to crucify Edwards, either. He's a racer, not an accountant. The heady experience of roaring around and around, on the edge of out of control, lap after lap, isn't particularly conducive to turning a cheek instead of a fender.
Not every driver takes matters into his own hands, but most have done it, to one extent or another, and every driver has thought seriously about it. The vigilante creed of the Sprint Cup Series is a more dangerous version of the Golden Rule: "Drive unto others as they drive unto you."
One of Edwards' virtues was honesty. He didn't deny that he meant to spin Keselowski out. He denied that he meant for Keselowski to bounce off the wall and turn upside down. I believe him.
But circumstances do count.
Edwards is basically a good guy. A little over-enthused at times, but once again, he is, after all, a racer. Keselowski's also a little over-enthused at times, and he's a newcomer to the Sprint Cup club. A good many members question whether or not he's paid his dues.
In the long run, this will probably benefit both parties. The rivalry will eventually morph into grudging acceptance of each by the other. This may not be a smooth transition, but a transition will occur. It always does. Feuds don't last forever. The one between Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott didn't. The one between Richard Petty and Bobby Allison didn't.
Edwards and Keselowski will have to get along because, ultimately, there's no other practical choice.
Things have been looking down for Jamie McMurray since the Daytona 500. Here he wrecks Martin Truex and Mark Martin in the final stages of the race. (Photo: Associated Press)
- The Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski feud suggests a serious flaw in NASCAR's recent "let 'em race" policy. Police themselves? Yeah, right.
- Didn't Jamie McMurray win the Daytona 500? Things have gone south ever since.
- Edwards seems to have few defenders in the grandstand or behind microphones. Kyle Petty on Speed: "That's just flagrant. ... They throw people out of basketball games for that. It's called a 'T.' 'Go to the locker room.' We heard a lot over the winter how we were going back to basics. This is not going back to basics, people, I don't care what you say."
- The multiple-overtime finishes are just ... nuts. The drivers can't be expected to stay under control when the rules aren't under control.
- Once again, Junior Nation rose in anticipation, this time after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a pole. Once again, race day was a disappointment.
- The "official" estimate of the Atlanta crowd was 85,000. As usual, that was obviously high. Reasonable? The view here was 67,000.
- Kevin Harvick, who won Atlanta's Camping World Truck Series race, has finished ninth or better in every Sprint Cup race so far.
- Three drivers - Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle - have finished in the top 10 in all four races to date. That's why they rank first, second and third, respectively, in the point standings.
- Quote to remember, from Harvick after winning the Camping World Truck Series race at AMS: "A lot of the reason we race trucks is to make sure Kyle Busch doesn't win all these races. That's the honest truth."
- Harvick doesn't compete that often in the Truck Series, but, dating back to the 2008 season, he has won five of his past nine races ... and finished in the top five in the other four.
Photo: Getty Images
OK, I guess Kurt Busch was the biggest winner at Atlanta. And Carl Edwards was the big loser.
If Kurt's the biggest, though, honorable mention must go to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
Had it not been for the rock 'em, sock 'em, Texas cage match between Edwards and Brad Keselowski, a Goodyear official probably would've been called upon to conduct some sort of media briefing regarding tire problems in the Kobalt Tools 500. I know requests were made. I can't be sure from my notes, but I read that at least 12 drivers had tire problems.
Goodyear brought a new compound to AMS, having tested there earlier this year. An inordinate amount of trouble befell the Hendrick Motorsports fleet, which failed to produce a single top-10 finisher after putting six in the top five (with two victories) in the season's first three races.
With five scheduled laps remaining in the race, most of the media were poised to explore a tire controversy.
Then Edwards, who had already been in one crash with Keselowski (and several notable ones in the past), returned the favor a bit crudely and Keselowski's Dodge wound up turning over and sailing through the air.
Tires were then largely forgotten.
NASCAR officials are considering disciplinary action against Edwards (likely announcement or lack of said announcement on Tuesday).
It would probably be appropriate for Goodyear to at least send Edwards a set of tires.
As a diversionary force, Edwards might as well have been the U.S. Cavalry.
HAMPTON, Ga. - Robert Thomas Velline probably isn't interesting in running NASCAR, but one of his hit songs suggests that he's qualified.
Velline is better known as Bobby Vee, and he released "Rubber Ball" (co-written by Gene Pitney) in 1961.
I'm like a rubber ball, baby, that's all that I am to you (Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy) Just a rubber ball 'cause you think you can be true to two (Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy) You bounce my heart around (You don't even put her down) And like a rubber ball, I come bouncing back to you (Hoo-ah-ooh-ooh)
In January, the talk of the sport was NASCAR's decision to, uh, "let 'em race." The ruling body had been too confining, and there's really no getting around the unsaid message, which was, "Boys, you just ain't wrecking enough."
NASCAR chairman Brian France pointedly called stock car racing "a contact sport," adding, "We have got the best racing in the world, and what are the things that we can do to make it better. What are the things that we can do to open it up a little bit?"
Combating a perception that the quality of the racing was declining - while at the same time firing salvos of statistics to dispute the notion - NASCAR held meetings with drivers in which they made the case for replacing control freaks with rioters. Before the Daytona 500, NASCAR relaxed restrictions on bump drafting and made an outlandish rule change that allows races to go into overtime by, well, as many as the 16 extra laps required to bring Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 to a messy, but colorful, conclusion.
On Sunday, the rubber ball may have bounced away from NASCAR's grasp again. The champion of "let 'em race," competition vice president Robin Pemberton, seemed to be hedging his bets again after a feud between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski erupted into something akin to Hatfields and McCoys.
Edwards and Keselowski have reached a stalemate befitting of the Old Testament. Keselowski launched Edwards skyward at Talladega almost a year ago. They've skirmished in the Nationwide Series. They clashed twice on Sunday, and the second time, it was Keselowski's car that left the ground.
"I would say there seems to be a history between those two drivers," said Pemberton. "I'm not going to go any further into it right now."
History? You think?
In January, NASCAR officials were talking about "letting drivers decide things among themselves" and obviously encouraging drivers to extol those same manly virtues.
Now it looks like Edwards, who was banished from the final laps of the race, may face some sort of penalty for rough driving.
NASCAR can't make up its mind whether or it wants "24" or "Law and Order" in its prime-time lineup.
Carl Edwards in his car before practice for the Kobalt Tools 500 race on Sunday in Atlanta. A crash early in the race caused by Keselowski sent Edwards up into the wall, wrecking Joey Logano. Later, Edwards and Kesolowski faced off again, this time causing Kes to go airborne and his car to come down on its roof. (Photo: Associated Press)
HAMPTON, Ga. - Forty laps into Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, three fairly prominent drivers - Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski -- were in a crash that was particularly costly for Edwards and Logano.
It wasn't costly for Keselowski, whose Dodge made contact with Edwards' Ford, which in turn sent the No. 99 skidding up the banking into Logano's Toyota.
"I thought he (Keselowski) would give me just a little bit of room, and he didn't, and we ended up overlapping," said Edwards, who was charitable. "I know Brad has made his career on being super-aggressive.
"We both had a part in it, and it'snot his fault, but it's just a little too aggressive, overall, I think, for that early in a race, and it caused us to wreck."
It wasn't over, though.
While Kurt Busch was attempting to hold off Juan Montoya for the victory, on lap 322, Edwards apparently picked a dangerous moment for a payback. His nudge of Keselowski's Dodge sent it tumbling in front of the front-straight grandstands.
The irony, of course, is that the roles were reversed at Talladega almost a year ago, when Keselowski claimed his only Sprint Cup victory to date by touching off a crash that sent Edwards' Ford into a spectacular series of flips. NASCAR officials parked Edwards' car shortly thereafter.
Keselowski opined, referring to Talladega, "At least I didn't do it intentionally," and called it "a wild ride that was uncalled for."
Edwards didn't apologize for the crash, per se, but just said he was sorry at how it turned out.
"The scary part was that the car went airborne, which wasn't what I expected," he said.
* * *
LATEST DISASTER==Struggling driver-owner Robby Gordon has seldom, if ever, "started and parked," but the depiction is sort of academic where Gordon's season to date is concerned.
Gordon crashed, apparently as a result of tire breakdown, on the fourth lap of the Kobalt Tools 500. Gordon completed 207 of the 208 laps in the Daytona (alleged) 500, finishing 28th. He then placed 33rd at Auto Club Speedway, retiring due to "overheating." Gordon was 32nd in Las Vegas, finishing five laps down.
Fox's Mike Joy made reference to "Robby's star-crossed year," but it's far beyond a mere run of bad luck. Gordon has one top-20 finish in his last 28 races.
AS THE LAPS TURN--Other potential contenders faded into oblivion early, as well. For pole winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., it was an unscheduled pit stop For Mark Martin, it was a spin through the trioval grass on lap 115. For Jeff Gordon, it was a pit-road speeding penalty at lap 158.
WHATEVER IT TAKES--On lap 226, after a search of the front straight that would've made Homeland Security proud, a safety crew actually found a very small chunk of something on the front straight that might have been debris.
The search blunted a Kasey Kahne lead of nearly eight seconds.
Kurt Busch celebrates in Victory Row after winning the Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta for the second year in a row. (Photo: Getty Images)
HAMPTON, Ga. - Kurt Busch drove his blue Dodge to victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second spring in a row, and in neither case was it, technically speaking, the Kobalt Tools 500.
Oh, no. A year earlier, Busch's victory required 330 laps, or 508.2 miles. This one, thanks to NASCAR's Wacky Racer Rules, circa 2010, required a whopping 16 extra laps, hiking the total distance to 525.14 miles.
Under new rules inadvertently formulated by Fox play-by-play man Mike Joy - who misinformed the television audience during the Budweiser Shootout by guaranteeing a green-flag finish - races can have not one, but as many as three overtime finishes. Sunday's race had one, yet went 16 laps over the scheduled distance.
Don't touch that dial, kids. Bristol and Talladega are just around the bend.
Busch's victory was particularly sweet for his crew chief, Steve Addington, cast aside by Busch's younger brother, Kyle, late last year. Addington and the younger Busch brother worked together through 12 victories, but when Kyle failed to make the Chase last year, a decision was made to cut Addington loose.
Did Addington feel "vindicated"?
"I think if I denied that, I would be lying," he said. "It feels good tob e with (Penske Racing), with Kurt as the driver, and come back and win before the '18' (Kyle Busch) got a chance to win. That's a personal deal.
"Nothing against that. I'm still great friends with Kyle and everything. But it's a good feeling and a relief in a certain way."
So the season's fourth race had its wholesome angle. It lasted almost four hours, and well over three of them were relatively civilized and sportsmanlike. Unfortunately, it's asking a lot of racers to expect them to be good for too long, and this race was too long.
Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, a couple of hot Roman candles with a history of sparks between them, clashed not once but twice during the race, and the lick returned by Edwards' Ford in round two turned into a haymaker. Keselowski's Dodge sailed into the air and landed on its roof on the 323rd lap, which, at the time, seemed much later in the race than it wound up being.
Keselowski said Edwards ought to be suspended. Edwards said he meant to wreck him but not turn him upside down, and neither of their views seemed particularly conciliatory.
What many thought would be Comeback Sunday for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who started on the pole, wound up being anything but. Earnhardt's Chevy, eminently unspectacular, fell behind by two laps at one point, and only the concluding anarchy - and a late-race "wave-around" that rivaled the Normandy Invasion (12 cars were restored to the lead lap) - got him back in position to finish ... 15th.
In something less than a stunning admission, Earnhardt said, "We weren't very good.
"We got two bad right-side tires and right-rear tires, and, I don't know, it felt like the damn wheels were coming off."
Tire troubles played a role in many spins and crunches of walls, prompting 18th-place Jeff Gordon to say, "When they (Goodyear) come here and test (which they did), you expect them to build a tire that we can abuse and that we can race hard with. That obviously wasn't the case."
Not a single Hendrick Motorsports Chevy finished in the top 10. The sport's premier organized combined for six top-five finishes in the first three races. Jimmie Johnson, winner in California and Las Vegas, finished 12th, followed by Earnhardt's 15th, Gordon's 18th and Mark Martin, who crashed, in 33rd
photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week
HAMPTON, Ga. - The skies are clear, the weather is warming and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is starting the Kobalt Tools 500 on the pole.
One effect is that Atlanta Motor Speedway is expecting some walk-up ticket sales that might have seemed likely until Earnhardt, stardom's prodigal son, lapped the 1.54-mile track at 192.761 mph on Friday.
"A lot of things can change over a period of time, and we've seen race teams completely change their identity, almost, in off-seasons before," said a hopeful Earnhardt. "I hope that's what we've been able to do. Hopefully, that off-season and the changes we made are definitely what we needed."
After finishing a fast-closing second in the Daytona 500, Earnhardt was one of many drivers who thudded back to earth in the succeeding races in Fontana, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev., finishing 32nd and 16th, respectively. The Kobalt Tools 500 marks the third consecutive race the intermediate tracks that serve as the foundation of the Sprint Cup schedule.
"It's just a matter of time," said Earnhardt. "If we keep performing like this (i.e., winning the pole), it should start leaking over on our performance on Sunday, and we can get to where we want to be as a race team. We've made a lot of changes. We tried to make the right ones in the off-season. We tried to sort of forget about what happened last year and try to come into this season with a renewed sense of confidence, and you try to get rid of the bugs from the year before, and it really has a lot to do with how confident you are in what you're getting ready to do."
"We just got beat down last year, and we figured we would have a chance to start new this year. It's just a better race team, and they're working really well together, and they are a really good group of guys and I just hope that we can have some success because they deserve it."
The goal is to build on the promise of qualifying and run well from beginning to end of a 500-mile race.
"Every race is sort of different in how it goes," said Earnhardt. "When people say there are teams or players that are the total package, or whatever, that's just really where we've got to go as a team. We're not the total package. We'll either hit on it, or we'll try our tail's off to make it happen.
"We'll either do it ... or we won't."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the 10th fastest car during Friday's practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but managed to secure the pole later in the day for today's Kobalt Tools 500. (Photo: Getty Image)
HAMPTON, Ga. - How much of NASCAR's slump is directly attributable to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s?
It would be pretty unfair to saddle Earnhardt - who is, after all, doing his best - with blame. It would also be unfair for NASCAR to intervene in his behalf. Should NASCAR be so inclined, it would be hard to do since there are so many eyes watching closely.
As NASCAR frets about attendance and ratings that have peaked and drifted downward in recent years - not to mention profits, stock price and budgets - it has to be more than coincidence that the slump coincides with hard times in Junior Nation.
From 2000 through 2004, Earnhardt won 15 races. In the five seasons since, he's won three. In the past three, he's won one.
It was a shock to the Nation's system that Earnhardt jumped to the Sprint Cup Series' best team, Hendrick Motorsports, in 2008. Many of Earnhardt's fans had previously cultivated a certain enmity toward the Team of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Dutifully, they set their differences aside. They accepted their hero's decision to move his rear to the best seat in NASCAR.
And ... nothing much happened, which, understandably, was a major bummer.
Many fans cite a growing, general indifference. Some happen to be wearing Earnhardt Jr. gear as they discuss it. They gripe about the racing not being as good, about the cars all looking alike ... in fact, "alike" is a broadly used term of derision. Many NASCAR fans - or, to cite oft-used words, "former NASCAR fans" - think the cars are too much alike, the tracks too much alike and the drivers too much alike.
But what many of them have against, say, Kyle Busch - who isn't "just alike" with anyone else in history - is that he isn't Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This isn't to say that all the other complaints don't have validity. It's to say that they might not be as apparent, or seem quite so important, if the preeminent driver in terms of popularity weren't struggling.
It's entirely possible that some eyes that might not be watching otherwise - particularly in the comfort of their living rooms - will be watching today, in large part because Dale Earnhardt Jr. is starting on the pole.
Inquiring minds want to see if he can win again, and to borrow from the lexicon of military commanders, the situation on the ground is starting to look promising again.