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After yesterday’s story about Front Row’s possible infraction at Pocono, we are hearing today that the penalty from NASCAR could be the biggest ever handed down.

When NASCAR makes the announcement later today or tomorrow, expect the penalty to include a $250,000 fine and 300 driver and owner points for Travis Kvapil and owner Bob Jenkins.  A suspension for crew chief Steven Lane will also be included.

This penalty tops the sanctions handed down last season to Carl Long’s team after his engine was discovered to be too large at Charlotte.

Like we’ve said here before, NASCAR will always be harshest about infractions dealing with engines, tires, and fuel, and they are obviously using this situation to reinforce that notion.

No word yet on how this will affect the team’s status moving forward.  Expect the team to appeal the decision.

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I’ve been following the Carl Edwards/Brad Keselowski reaction all week, because I was curious how everyone would respond to the incident.  Between Twitter, forums, blog comments, and the writers, I’ve read a lot.  Journo weighed in on the topic here on Monday.  Some folks have made some really great points, and I can understand most sides of the controversy.  What I don’t understand, is those that think this decision by NASCAR is going to somehow turn the drivers into wreck ‘em derby maniacs who now won’t fear the consequences.

This idea that somehow some horrible precedent has now been set in terms of how NASCAR will govern the on track action just isn’t true.  The sport’s leadership handles these special situations on a case-by-case basis, and will dole out penalties accordingly.  They actually handled this specific incident very similarly to how they’ve handled other recent retaliation situations.

In this country, many courts of law decide cases by precedent.  Past decisions do affect how future cases are decided.  But guess what?  NASCAR isn’t a court of law.  They don’t need to take past decisions into account when they are trying to figure out penalties for a special situation.  Why?  Because absolute consistency isn’t necessarily needed.  When Denny Hamlin wrecked Keselowski at Homestead, a one lap penalty was sufficient because Hamlin did what he came to do and NASCAR couldn’t let him get away with it.  At Atlanta, Edwards was obviously furious, and he needed to be parked for his own good. 

I understand that before the season started, they basically told the drivers to “have at it.”  And while this may have played a role in their decision making, they actually went harder on Edwards then they did on Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya at Homestead last season; and those wrecks happened before they changed their stance.  So trying to say that NASCAR went easy on Edwards because of this new philosophy just doesn’t hold water.

When issues like this arise, it always seems like we hear somebody say that NASCAR needs to lay out a penalty schedule so that every infraction is dealt the same penalty.  Well guess what?  Just like every other sport, NASCAR penalizes the regular infractions the same all the time.  Unapproved adjustments, engine changes, pit road speeding, and a ton of other infractions are dealt with the same way.

But in special situations, like the one we saw in Atlanta, NASCAR must decide penalties on a case-by-case basis.  Why?  Because there are too many factors that go into what went down, and there is no way for the sanctioning body to be prepared for every possible dust-up.  We’ve seen NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handle many different player incidents all separately, and I don’t see anyone calling for his job.

Moving forward, you aren’t going to see drivers wrecking each other and going crazy because Carl Edwards wasn’t suspended for life.  There will be no “vigilante justice,” as one writer suggested.  Drivers know NASCAR is in charge and that they will rule on events as they see fit.  The powers that be have shown plenty of times in the past that if they feel a situation has become out of control, they will step in with harsh penalties to send a message.

As I’ve said before, if Keselowski spins harmlessly through the tri-oval grass, we are never having these discussions.  There would be talk about how Keselowski got what was coming to him, and how Edwards overreacted to a racing incident.  Endless discussions of precedents and rules and governance would have never entered anyone’s minds.

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NASCAR policies often ebb and flow in their enforcement. In the past we’ve seen a sanctioning body that really likes to loosen things up when people start complaining; but when that inevitable watershed event occurs enforcement gets ramped up again.

In true NASCAR form, this season brought us one of those promises of lighter enforcement. They wanted to foster an atmosphere of self-policing (within moderation of course). In response to that just more than a month ago Robin Pemberton looked at the gathered media and said, “Boys, have at it.”

Well Sunday in Atlanta, NASCAR got their wish; the boys had at it. After getting wrecked early in the race, Carl Edwards returned to the track 153 laps down and quite clearly took out the guy who helped him into the wall earlier.

That guy, Brad Keselowski, has made a name for himself in his very short career of getting involved in incidents like this one. Remember the Brad K. v. Denny Hamlin feud just a few months ago? Right or wrong, being aggressive and unapologetic about it is his style.

So with that, it was only a matter of time before an incident like this one occurred and it came as no surprise (to me at least) that Brad K. was involved.

I applauded NASCAR’s move before the season began and I still believe it was a good call. I think this incident though should be a wake up call to everyone in the garage. There’s self-policing and then there’s self-policing. Everyone needs to agree this sort of thing can’t be tolerated. Obviously Carl didn’t mean for Keselowski to get airborne, or expect that happen, but the possibility always exists at 200 mph.

That said though, I have a hard time justifying a suspension, and I’d be surprised if NASCAR issued one (famous last words). Even more, of all people to be calling for someone to get suspended for aggressive driving, it’s almost laughable that person is Brad Keselowski. By all means he deserves to be angry for what resulted from the payback; he could have been seriously injured (thankfully he wasn’t). But if ever there was a situation where that old idiom ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ applies, this is it.

No question, it’s unfortunate this happened. Frankly drivers should know better than to do things like this. While I can’t say what the proper punishment should be here, Robin Pemberton has said NASCAR will evaluate the incident further. If there are additional penalties, we’ll likely hear about them by Tuesday.

So what do you think? Was the retaliation justified? What, if any, should the punishment be for retaliating on track?

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I have to commend NASCAR, they really have been listening to all of the sport’s stakeholders and then taking proactive steps to correct things they have identified as problems. Through individual feedback, town hall meetings, and the fan council, the once infallible sanctioning body is realizing that maybe they are capable of making mistakes. We’re getting a spoiler soon and steps have been taken to improve the racing at the Superspeedways (they seem to be working out).

All this is great and I’m happy to see a much more open sanctioning body; in fact I’m excited to see how all these changes pan out. That said I’m beginning to wonder if they’re taking this new found openness a little too far.

Let me step back for a moment. Last week the Bud Shootout ended rather unceremoniously under caution; the result of a green-white-checkered attempt. After this there was the usual grumbling from everybody (but the winner) about the race finishing under caution. Cooler heads tell us the rule is in place because without it, or with more attempts at G-W-C, we end up with a bunch of wrecked racecars and the same result – a race ending under caution.

Obviously though NASCAR felt the need to bend to the pressure and make a change to the “green-white-checkered race procedure” – quickly. So between last Saturday and yesterday NASCAR decided it is now “allowing a maximum of three restart attempts prior to the White Flag under NASCAR’s Green-White-Checkered flag finish. If the leader has taken the White Flag and the caution flag is displayed, the field is frozen and the race will not be restarted.”

While I could be completely off-base here, I think NASCAR is being far too reactionary on something we’ve seen in the past probably won’t work. I’m not alone on both counts. Jeff Gordon said:

“They could do ten green-white-checkereds and we’re still not going to make it to the checkered.”

Mark Martin questioned the rationale behind yet another rule change.

Putting aside the change at hand I think the larger issue is them making changes to established and logical rules depending upon the direction the wind is blowing. I’m a little worried this might become the norm. It’s great they’re listening and making positive changes, but they could stand to give some time to make sure important changes are thoroughly vetted.