2010 NASCAR Season

Count me as one too.

3 years ago I went to the Brickyard 400. A friend of mine worked with a cellular company that was in tight with Bright Point Technologies, so we got to sit in their suite.
This was cool (free beer, food about 40 feet behind Kevin Harvick's pit) but, I REALLY liked going over to IRP & watching the Trucks on Friday night (my first true night race) and the Busch series on Saturday night.

Nothing beats the trucks on a short track. We sat front row in turn 4. Watching them get sideways and damn near hit the wall was one of the coolest sights I've seen in racing.

I loved Sunday's race. I am a Carl Fan and I really don't care for Keselowski all that much either. So, I am 100% behind Carl. If he always raced the way he did to catch up to the 12 just to spin him out, he would be unstoppable.

I feel bad for him that it resulted in a fairly spectacular wreck, this may come back & bite him in the ass with a point penalty, or a fine, or both.

With the amount of people that may tune in because of this, I sure hope the powers that be don't decide to sit him for a race or two.

I will take Kurt Busch all day long over Jimmie Johnson.

As far as the race lengths go, I really like the 300 miler in New Hampshire, it wouldn't hurt my feelings the slightest if they mixed a few more of those in.

 

I have the opposite opinion on the Edwards thing. I started out as a fan of his during his truck series run, but he's been steadily losing me over his Cup tenure. I think he finally crossed the line on Sunday.

Keep in mind that the 'nice guy' was pretty much hated by all of his teammates when he first came to Cup, to the point that Jack Rousch had to intervene after Edwards did that lame 12-year-old-angry-middle-schooler move with the punch fakeout at Matt Kenseth. That was the most cringe-worthy moment over the past 5 years in NASCAR hands-down. How do you even get mad at Matt Kenseth? Are you expecting him to flinch, Carl? The guy barely has a pulse when he wins. (No offense to the 17 fans, heh. He's just a very calm guy.)

Edwards driving style is akin to old Swervin' Ernie Irvan. Sure, he can win, but the two incidents he's mad at Keselowski over in Cup involve Edwards trying to come down on Brad against the bottom of the track both times. Keselowski is not the best driver on the circuit by a long shot. I fully expect his career trajectory to match that of Brian Vickers at best, but he'll probably wind up more like David Gilliland. He deserved what he got from Denny Hamlin in the Nationwide series last year. (Though you'll notice Denny knew to keep those problems in that series and it didn't carry over to Cup.)

With all that in mind about Keselowski, what does it say about Edwards that even *he* had to admit after both incidents that he came down on him? Keselowski wasn't swerving up into him, he wasn't hitting him from behind, or wrecking out in front of him.

It shows Carl Edwards to be a self entitled spoiled brat, who expects people to about wreck themselves out when he decides he wants to block twice, hoping force someone below the yellow line (Talladega) or he wants them to back off in the middle of a corner when everyone is already off the gas (as Keselowski said about Atlanta) What was he supposed to do? Slam on the brakes, slide up the track, and get taken out from behind? Drop down to the apron and lose a ton of spots at best, spin out and wreck at worst?

Either that, or Carl needs a new spotter ASAP.

That leads us to his 'payback.' I know NASCAR has its marketing engine ramped up about 'letting them race like the old days,' but what Carl pulled would get him in trouble even in the Earnhardt days. You DO NOT come back on a track 150 some-odd laps down just to get revenge. But even if we let that go, let's look at the circumstances surrounding the wreck and Edwards' lame "I didn't know he would go airborne' excuse.

1) Atlanta is the fastest non-restrictor plate track on the circuit.
2) Edwards is intimately aware of the fact that when these cars with that wing get backwards at that speed, they go airborne.
3) Knowing this, he chose to turn him around at the fastest part of one of the fastest tracks. He didn't give him a shot from behind. He didn't take the air off him in the corner. He didn't crowd him into the wall. He certainly didn't put Keselowski in a position to learn a lesson about backing off when people are coming down the track. He turned him around, front quarter panel to rear quarter panel.
4) He didn't wait until Bristol a couple weeks from now or any other short track where drivers often settle these kinds of scores.
5) He even did it in the dog-leg "tri oval" part of the track, which is what led both of them to going towards the fence.

So either it was an intentional attempt to cause Keselowski to crash big, or Carl Edwards is so reckless and retarded he needs to be kicked the fuck out, or at least suspended for a race or two.

It's going to be pretty epic when Keselowski goes after Edwards. It'll be the first time in this whole clusterfuck that *HE* will turn into Edwards, instead of the other way around. What will Edwards be able to do then? Cry about him intentionally wrecking him?

-------

All that said, I may no longer be a Carl Edwards fan, but at least he has more personality than Jimmie Johnson, and this feud should be entertaining. I'd root for Edwards over JJ the last laps of any race.

 

You brought up some very good points in your post.

I do remember Carl's "made you flinch" move against Matt & I thought it was extremely immature at the time. Since, his actions range from pretty great to douchey

The deal with him and Keselowski is the biggest "feud" to happen to the Cup series in a few years. This will increase viewership & probably result in more ticket sales (both of which are hurting) I also think he has a majority of the Cup garage on his side of this "feud"

NASCAR acted to today by imposing a severe 3 race "double secret probation" penalty against Carl. Helton made it clear that the car getting airborne was looked at as a separate incident to the actual contact of the 99 into the 12.

I really thought he would get a little more harsh punishment. Points, $$$$, or both in addition to the probation.

 

My opinion of this goes for all sports (NBA included):

I want to be entertained. I am not turning on the television to watch some damn business move being made at 180 mph. I don't give two shits about whether or not Aflac has presented a good public image because of the "product" they support. I didn't tune in to watch a fucking chess match, JJ, or a teenager who just got her first period cramp, Jr.

I tune in to see shit like what happened between Edwards and Keslowski. I tune in because I want to see shit like what happens pretty much at all restrictor plate races. As much as I despise Tony Stewart, I tune in to see what happens when people try to fuck with him.

Keslowski was being a punk (can't stand that guy, or Vickers, even though he hates Jr. too) and he needed to be put in his place. Did he need to get a friendly "bump"? At minimum. Did he need to be sent into the wall? Perhaps. At the very least he needed to be spun out (a pretty safe bet, as decent drivers will generally drive their way out of it) and have his asshole pucker a bit. Now, did he need to go airborne? Absolutely not. But that's what these cars are doing when they get spun at the right speed in the right way. Like NASCAR said, that's a separate concern all together.

I will be tuning in these next few weekends specifically to see what happens as more of this drama unfolds. NASCAR may be saying with words that this incident "crosses the line" in their "let drivers drive" kind of thing, but the slap on the wrist they gave Edwards says "under the table, this is exactly what we're fine with." And I'm fine with it too, because that kind of drama is the reason I turn on the television in the first place.

 

I'm torn on the airborn thing: on one hand its amazing, as a fan, to see this kind of arial carnage. On the other, I am very concerned that it's a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured. My heart was in my throat when John Travolta landed upside down on that other car at... Talladega was it?

My solution: Once the flying car thing is addressed, I think they need to go back, locate those "sweet spots" that cause the carnage we drunkenly root for, and rig them with pressure sensors that trigger fireworks and/or a spraying mechanism that is directly aimed at the driver's face.

Want to go out and be a dick to someone? Provoke some payback? Guess what, bitch, you car just got lit up like a Christmas tree going around the track and now everyone knows you suck Edwards' cock for a living. Want to cut off Smokey when he's holding his line? Bam! Three gallons of water shot directly in your helmet, that you have to sit in for another hour and a half. How does diaper rash feel now, punk?

 

You're right. But I still think that "the car going airborne was a separate issue" thing is bullshit, and another example of that double standard. You can claim it was done in the heat of the moment, but Carl Edwards had what.. two hours to sit around thinking about what he was going to do? Then he was obviously stalking the brat for a couple laps before-hand. This wasn't a "he hit me, so I hit him right back immediately," thing. And I have a hard time believing Jack Rousch would let him back on track if Edwards was still obviously fuming and raging and going on about payback.

No, Carl gave a pretty calm, somewhat plaintive, but overall reconcilliatory-toned interview, obviously convinced his crew he was dedicated to going back out to get points, then chose to do what he did at the end of the race, once he had made up as many spots as he could. That's not heat-of-the-moment; that's fucking cold-blooded and calculating.

Good for Carl, I guess. He's a lot more brutal than I gave him credit for. I just hope they don't fix the wing issue before they get to Talladega, so the brat can turn Edwards around at the end of the backstretch and claim the inevitable tumble the 99 takes is a "separate issue." THAT would be entertaining.

 

Watching Talladega Nights.

Why the hell was Edwards not immortalized on a plague somewhere for going airborne into the fucking catch fence, climbing out of his car, and re-enacting one of the greatest Will Ferrel moments of all time? How is that not one of the greatest sports moments ever? Sheer holy-fucking-shit-you-almost-died-in-a-manly-flame-of-awesome combined with an insanely appropriate and not over-played comedic reference?




Go world.

 

I started Kurt Busch in my fantasy league, so I'll stick with him here.

 

1) Kurt Busch is savvy enough to realize he can feed off the ol' Jimmie Johnson hate out there. His post-race comments about not minding if any of the other 41 cars beat him, but not the 48 show it. Pretty funny stuff.

2) For the second week in a row (since I started to pay as much attention,) the lower series race was far more interesting, with a more satisfying conclusion than the Cup series.

3) Did anyone catch that awesome old-man race the held after the Nationwide race? It was pretty hilarious to see Harry Gant out there mixing it up with the Silver Fox himself, Dave Marcis, Cale Yarborough, and a bunch of old short track aces. Of course, two of those old men (Larry Pearson and some other guy) almost killed each other in a wicked wreck. But I think they'll be okay.

 

I was just going to bring that up. I never heard anything about this race and was pissed off when I saw it on the guide with just a couple laps left. I did manage to record a replay of that wreck though and save it to the DVR. It was fucking intense. But I wish they would do more of those old timer races. I would tune in to a few of those a year.

 

You may just get your wish. Rumor has it that it's going to be his spot that Khane will be filling in the Hendricks barn for 2011/12 since Mark isn't retiring.. again.

 

Where have you heard these rumors? As much as I wish it was true, I don't see it happening. Jr is the golden goose. Even if he's not winning, he bringing in major sponsors and the last I checked, he's far and away tops in merchandising. Car owners don't make their money from the race purse. They get it from sponsors and merchandise.

 

Earnhardt still has a year or 2 left on his contract with Hendrick. I guess Hendrick can buy him out if he really wants, but for reasons listed above I would doubt that he would.

I saw somewhere that Kahne might end up racing for Tony Stewart for a year or 2 and then move to Hendrick.

 

Am I missing something here? I thought it was basically a done deal that Kahne would be in Martin's car in 2012. Mark said he doesn't want to retire, but all that means is he'll have to find a ride somewhere else. I'm gonna guess that Kahne races for Stewart-Haas next year, and then Mark Martin and Kahne swap cars the year after that. I can totally see Tony getting Martin for a couple years to help build a team over there.