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."

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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.

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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.