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The incident between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski has been a major focus of fans and national media attention for the past two days. With much anticipation, everyone was waiting to see what the reaction would be from NASCAR. In today’s press conference, Mike Helton announced that Carl Edwards would be placed on probation for the next three races…period!
A large segment of the NASCAR community was expecting a fine of at least $25,000 and a lost of driver and owner points. That didn’t happen, and rightfully so. Similar incidents in the past were dealt with in similar fashion with drivers being black flagged for a lap, and on a couple of occasions drivers have been parked. The only example I can think of where drivers have been fined and docked points for retaliation incidents is when those incidents took place on pit road, placing crew members and officials at risk. I can’t think of a single case where someone was fined for intentionally bumping or spinning someone on the track under green flag conditions, like the incident on Sunday.
The only reason the Edwards/Keselowski incident has generated any interest at all is because Keselowski’s car went airborne. Helton did go on to say that NASCAR takes the incident seriously because the car went airborne and would be evaluating the conditions and taking steps to make sure that it never happens again. Continue reading →
