PHOTO Compliments of Speedway Media www.speedwaymedia.com where there’s more race photos.

You would need to be a moron to not see it coming especially when it appeared the two were battling for the lead coming off turn 4 to the front stretch. Both cars were sideways loose and obviously racing hard. The thing was one guy was on the lead lap, the other was over 125 laps down.

Early during the Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday rookie Brad Keselowski was apparently aggressive during a restart and lost the handle of his car running Carl Edwards up the track and into Joey Logano effectively ending both Edwards and Logano’s day. Keselowski recovered decently enough to remain on the lead lap. Edwards and his crew retired to the garage for repairs and during that time Edwards said, “We were on the restart and I was going for the bottom. I knew Brad was peeking inside, but I thought he’d give me just a little bit of room and he didn’t and we ended up overlapping. I had it saved and I guess I got into the 20 car at the very top of the race track. I didn’t see that part of it, but it’s so frustrating for a number of reasons, most of which is that I love racing here. I love this race track and I want to be out there driving right now. I know Brad has made his career on being super-aggressive. We both had a part in it and it’s not his fault, but it’s just a little too aggressive overall, I think, for that early in the race and caused us to wreck.”

Now, Keselowski has been the subject of many entries on my blog and in most cases I have defended his actions and gotten on some of the veterans. When NASCAR announced that they were going to let the drivers settle things amongst themselves this season they had to know that the things that happened Sunday were possible. Clearly Edwards was upset after the initial wreck.

The came the hit down the front stretch, a spectacular crash that looked eerily similar to the one at Talladega that saw Edwards upside down and into the fence, Keselowski went to victory lane because of it. Except this time, the checkered flag was nowhere in sight. As a result of his actions on the track NASCAR “parked” the No. 99 for aggressive driving. Edwards afterwards was quite unapologetic saying, “Brad knows the deal between him and I. The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we’re out here to race and people have to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people’s safety. I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s okay and we’ll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won’t get in anymore incidents together. I think at the end of the day, the best thing would be Brad and I just not getting together anymore and we probably won’t now. I’m just glad everybody is alright.”
The No. 99 just wrecked me intentionally on the straightaway,” Keselowski said as he exited the infield care center for his mandatory medical check up. “I was cutting him some slack because I knew he was angry, but I guess it wasn’t enough slack, and he about killed me.”
“To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that’s not cool,” Keselowski said. “You could have killed someone in the grandstands. I know that it’s a little ironic that it’s me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally [when they wrecked at Talladega].
“It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands. It’s not cool to wreck someone at 195 mph.”

After the race Robin Pemberton NASCAR V.P. of Competition refused to speculate on the actions NASCAR might take. It looked like it could have been a payback from the No. 99 on the No. 12. We talked with Carl after the race and we have an understanding about it and we will talk internally again as a group Monday or Tuesday of this week and make any decision on if there will be any other actions that we will take.”

The media, attempting to get Pemberton to commit to what would happen pressured him by asking further questions to which Pemberton responded, “It’s always a concern when you see retaliation and there are different levels of it. Like I said, we will discuss it further at the R&amp Center early this week.” At the moment there was no decision he said, “We don’t rush to judgment on Sunday nights and make penalties. That’s why we take our time and go back and talk it about it some more.”

There’s a group calling for Edwards to be suspended. I would say it’s not gong to happen. I would think that he will be fined, put on probation and a donation to the foundation is suitable. It should serve as a notice that wrecking someone at 190 mph could endanger just more than the participants. Will Keselowski learn anything from the hard hit? Most likely nothing of the sort will happen with him. I still recall his hard hit in an early JR Motorsports entry at California that was far more spectacular and harder hitting.
I’m sure Edwards did not try and hurt Keselowski but NASCAR can’t allow hot heads to prevail. What they need to do is find out why that car doesn’t stay on the ground with those types of hits. Look at Logano’s mess at Dover last season. At high speeds it wants to flip and it does. NASCAR needs to keep their word and issue a warning and at the same time look at the car and its high center of gravity.
The driver’s will settle this in the garage, in the motor coach lots and the shops back in Charlotte. There will be no “hugging it out” with this one. I am willing to bet that Keselowski hears from some veterans this week. I wonder what they’re going to say to him. Probably something about him not really being a victim all the time…

I had a friend of mine give me a call on Monday while I was in Florida to ask me a question about the Daytona 500. I was prepared for anything from this guy, who is a self admitted fan of racing and anything that has an engine. Tony then said, “Does NASCAR, or whoever owns the track not have enough money to take care of the track?” My response was more one of an education than a defense. I explained that the combination of heavy rains, the high speed, and the cold damages the foundation of the pavement.
His response was one of dismay. “How can they not be prepared for this? Isn’t this the biggest race of the year?” I thought my friend asked me a great series of questions.

During the delays I was given an update by an associate as to what Brian France, NASCAR CEO had to say about the problems. With the race being halted for long periods of time because the track surface was falling apart it was becoming a dangerous and it needed to be repaired. “The normal solutions you normally use to patch the track are not working, France said. But we’re actually turning the corner. We’re on the third different solution. Normally we would have had it resolved a lot quicker. This is the problem.” France was apparently happy with the racing that he saw until the long delays and to be honest I thought the racing was pretty good when they were actually racing.

The race winner, Jamie McMurray was explaining to the media why he was so emotional after his win. McMurray mentioned that his father was an emotional person as well. He then explained that his father left the track at some point during the race. A member of the media asked him to the sound of thunderous laughter, “if it was due to the delays?”
McMurray said of the track conditions and the efforts to clean it up, “Well, I thought that NASCAR and the track did a really good job trying to get it fixed. I mean, the people” McMurray then spoke about his feelings on ending the 500 early. “I don’t think the Daytona 500 should ever end early. Obviously when it rains and there’s exceptions to this, but I thought that they did a really good job. I was asking numerous times, ‘What are they doing to fix it, what is the problem?’ There were some issues over there. I thought they did a really good job of getting it fixed. Once they figured out a solution for it, we didn’t sit out of the cars for quite so long. I thought they did a really good job of getting it fixed.”

I also heard on television that Darrell Waltrip was whining that he had breakfast and lunch in the booth and now he was going to have dinner. I wonder how many people tuned out on television which is more important than how many left the track due to the long delays. I’m sure ISC was ecstatic with their concession stand results from the marathon day because I’m pretty sure most fans did not plan on being there for a 10 hour race.

I’m afraid that its time. It’s time to repave the track. This means the track will be fast, with a ton of grip and passing will be even more difficult, just like it was with Talladega. However, you can’t have the “Super Bowl of Racing” be the “Blooper Bowl”. There was no half time entertainment and even if there was the “half-time” was almost as long as the game. NASCAR and ISC needs to make sure that all efforts are expended to insure that when the weather is good the racing is good. Fans, participants and those of us covering the sport deserve better. Hopefully this is a lesson learned…

Well, it’s been a few months since I last updated. I will once again try to get this on schedule with some “Monday morning quarterbacking” as we start off with the 2010 season. I welcome commentary folks, let me have it… Just understand, I tend to give it back.

It was just announced that the Danica Circus in Daytona will continue for one more week as JR Motorsports GM Kelley Earnhardt announced that Danica Patrick will make her NASCAR debut this Saturday in the season opening Nationwide Series race in Daytona.

“I think Danica proved to everyone that she can compete in stock cars at a high level, and right now seat time is extremely important,” Dale Junior’s sister Kelley said. “She has worked extremely hard during the past two months for this opportunity. Her dedication and work ethic is infectious.”

Patrick ran a respectable race this past Saturday in the ARCA series finishing in 6th place. The race was not without incident for her as she made contact with another car and made a pretty good save to keep the car from being destroyed.

Patrick said, “"To be the one driving that GoDaddy car at Daytona means a lot to me,” Patrick said. “Racing in the Nationwide Series race was my goal during this entire two-month preparation process, but we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do. The ARCA race was a blast, and I’m not ready for my first Daytona Speedweeks to end just yet. I want more racing.”

In my column this week I mentioned my take on Patrick qualifying at Daytona and the chance that she could actually miss the race. Well, NASCAR.COM corrected me today by saying that JR Motorsports is guaranteed a starting spot because they acquired points from the CJM’ Racing’s No. 11 car from last season. Accordingly, I stand corrected with that little nugget of information.

However, a 6th place finish in an ARCA race, surviving a harrowing spin down the front stretch grass and not wrecking would not, in my eyes make her good enough to race in the Nationwide Series race Saturday. There’s on positive thing I can think of, she’ll most likely remain on the lead lap and if she can survive the carnage, she could get a great finish. However, she could also be involved in the “big one” and be out early. I think she should have entered the race in California and let it go at that. I want to see how long until she’s lapped there.

The color of the weekend is definitely pink. Many drivers are sporting special paint schemes to recognize Breat Cancer Awareness Month and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The teams sporting pink on their cars include Kyle Busch (with a very bright pink driver’s uniform and hats to match), Elliott Sadler (who also has pink driver’s shoes), Bill Elliot, Michael Waltrip and many Nationwide Series cars as well. Michael Waltrip was signing autographs with a pink Sharpie. I thought that the cars looked pretty good and it certainly was all for a good cause.

As many are already aware Kyle Busch won the Nationwide Series event and after the race he filled us in on just how sick he was in California. He is on the downside of pneumonia and ran really well in the race Friday night. He is definitely looking to upgrade to the “gold trophy” given out to the winner of the cup races at Lowes Motor Speedway. The winners of the Nationwide Series races get a silver trophy and he noted that he had already won a few of those.

Busch also spoke about his team mate Joey Logano being really strong this season but LMS would do him well. Busch said, “I knew this was a great track for me that I felt like we could get another win at. I felt the same way at Kansas and Chicago and a couple others that we’ve missed on because Joey (Logano) has been really, really good and he’s been coming on and being really fast.”

A few more things that came to light this weekend is that the Hendrick duo of Johnson and Martin will be a force to reckon with throughout the entire race. Johnson and Martin finished first and second, respectively, in qualifying and the practice sessions. However the real big news in Charlotte was the announcement of the first 5 inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame next spring. When Martin was asked his feelings about the choices he said, “I was careful when they made the selection yesterday to not say something that was stupid. It kind of pleased me when I looked at all the comments today because I wondered about Pearson myself. I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of a lot of things and the history of NASCAR I’m probably not as up on that as I am on current setups of these cars or something that pertains more to what I’m focused on because I’m pretty laser focused. So that being said I’m not strong enough to give you real good opinions about it.” Most drivers made similar comments without naming anyone in particular as to who should or should not be in. Tony Stewart simply said the class looked about right.

This could be the last race at a track names Lowes Motor Speedway. The naming rights have not been renewed yet and it looks like the Charlotte Motor Speedway may come back into play.

Last but not least is that I expect this race tonight to be the same as the last few races have been. The top ten will consist of 80 % of the chase participants or more. I don’t expect any sort of shake out until we head to Martinsville or Talladega. Those looking for a shake up at the top have no choice but to note that Jimmie Johnson may leave Talladega with a stranglehold on the points lead. Sure, something might happen, but it just never seems to. All I can think of was Johnson leaving Charlotte almost 70 points behind Jeff Gordon. He then went on a tear that never seemed possible. Gordon came in second place that year and averaged just over 5 th place in that chase. I think you’ll see that average again this year.

Jimmie Johnson’s history in the chase doesn’t really need to be updated does it? Of course, on paper, he is the strongest candidate to win this thing. Only Johnson, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart have won in this new format established in 2004 and I am beginning to wonder if NASCAR’s idea to make the championship more exciting has blown up in their face.
Remember after the fall Richmond race in 2003 Matt Kenseth had a 418 point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Remember how Kenseth only had one win in 2003, yet he still won the championship? Does anyone recall how many points he won the championship by and who came in second (the NEVER do)? The runner up for the last Winston Cup was Jimmie Johnson, who lost by a mere 90 points with 3 wins. Ryan Newman had the most wins in 2003 with eight, but finished 6th in the final standings.
So, with a new sponsor (Nextel – Sprint) coming on board in 2004 NASCAR decided to change the format to a 10 race playoff. They tinkered with how points were awarded for wins and how many get to participate (initially only 10 drivers made the chase) but overall they have touted this as exciting. And exciting it was, in 2004. After that there really has not been any excitement because Johnson has done what was necessary for that No. 48 bunch to win it.
So, with Jimmie Johnson winning the Sprint Cup race in Dover this weekend the following stories were found on the internet:

“Johnson Serves Notice with Dover Victory”; “So, can anybody beat Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus? Better bring your A-plus game to Kansas”; “Johnson leaves the rest with that sinking feeling”; “It’s Johnson’s title to lose”

There are already people who believe that the 2009 edition of Chase for the Sprint Cup is already over because of Johnson’s dominance at Dover. However, many of the participants don’t agree just yet.

Current points leader Mark Martin said after the race, “We missed it just a little, little bit.” He then addressed how he wanted things to work when he made the move the Hendrick Motorsports this season. He wondered aloud if his contributions helped the No. 48 car. “I certainly it would make me very proud if something I said helped them,” Martin said. “Don’t forget, you know, that was one of my major goals when they brought me in. I wanted to be able to make a contribution to Hendrick Motorsports. I hoped I might get a win, but I definitely wanted to at least be useful.”
Martin then put his team mate on notice while conceding how good he is. “So we’re going to race them,” Martin said. “We’re going to race our guts out no matter where he we wind up. And no matter who they are.”
Then he added about Johnson, “I’m pretty sure that the dude’s Superman. And, you know, I have had the opportunity to see up close. I’m telling you, I see why he is so successful. I see why. He works harder at it than anybody else, I think, on the circuit.”
After the race Johnson was asked if he hoped that everyone else felt like they were defeated, like it was already a foregone conclusion. Johnson said, “I know some teams are motivated by things like this where we don’t perform (like at New Hampshire?) and come back the following week and step up. Some people it can affect them in a way where it’s helpful. I really don’t think about those things.”
Johnson admitted to paying attention to things other than his race car in the past saying, “I see guys get so worried about what other people think, what other people say and spend a lot of time in those areas. That’s not what works for me. I tried to play some of those games in 2005 with Tony Stewart. It didn’t workout for me. Since that day I realized I just need to run my race, put blinders on. Don’t watch television. Don’t watch or read any of the trade papers, magazines. Just ignore, ignore, ignore, and focus on my world and what’s going on with my race car. That’s what I’ll do through the rest of the chase.”
Going into the chase there were stories of how perhaps Johnson and his crew were not as strong as they had been in past years. Perhaps they could be beat. Right now pundits have eliminated half the ‘chasers’ from hope of winning it. I would say to just wait a minute, agree with Mark Martin that we’re 20% through this chase. But if Johnson goes on a top – 5 tear this thing could be over before we hit Lowes Motor Speedway next month. It’s something NASCAR doesn’t want to happen but people could care less if Johnson makes history this year, they need a reason to watch it, either from their seats in the grandstands or from their living room. Johnson taking everyone to school in 2009 might mean NASCAR gives him ‘day old tires’ to race on during the 2010 chase.

I wonder what is getting said behind closed doors in Daytona Beach now.