Full Contact Racing [Video]

Talladega 2009

If NASCAR wants rivalries, it’s got one hell of one. Enter Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. These two race against each other in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and and the Nationwide Series. In Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500, the two had a couple of instances of contact, resulting in Keselowski’s otherwise stellar performance being turned upside down.

Before recounting today’s madness, let’s take a look back to last year at Talladega. On the final lap of the race, Edwards led Keselowski as they raced down the front-stretch. With NASCAR’s yellow line rule at restrictor plate tracks, the two found themselves trying to claim the same section of real-estate. They made contact, and Edwards went flying into the catch-fence in spectacular fashion. Keselowski went on to win the race, the first win of his career.

Back to today’s events. Early in the race, the two drives collided. Edwards slid up the track in turn one after a bump from Keselowski. Keselowski claimed that he did all he could to avoid contact, but Edwards just came down on him. When Edwards slid up, he collected Joey Lagano, and sent he, and himself to the garage. Both would return to the race, many laps down. Keselowski would continue with minor damage.

After a long race, and with only a hand full of laps remaining, Edwards and Keselowski found themselves together once again. Keselowski was running in the top five, and in a position to earn his best finish with Penske Racing. The Roush Racing driver of Carl Edwards, however, saw an opportunity at getting a little pay back on Keselowski. Edwards purposely turned into Keseloweski, turning him sideways.

Once Keselowski was turned around, air and speed worked to his disadvantage. That, and the pesky rear wing. After the air built up under Keselowski’s rear wing, we quickly went airborne, flipping into the catch-fence in a fashion very similar to Edwards wreck at Talledega.

Afterwards, Keselowski climbed from his car, dazed and mad, but okay. In a post wreck interview, Keselowski warned NASCAR that if drivers are allowed to wreck each other on purpose, then either a driver or a fan will end up hurt or dead.

Edwards, after being parked and summoned to the NASCAR hauler, admitted that he wreck Keselowski, but acted very surprised that he flipped.

I guess we will find out Tuesday the ramifications of today’s full contact racing. You can chime in now. What do you think about the wreck? Should either be penalized any further? Should NASCAR tighten the reins on driver’s aggressiveness more? Post your comment bellow.

More pictures of the Edwards/Keselowski wreck courtesy of Awesome Wreckage:

http://awesomewreckage.com/crashes/brad-keselowski-wrecks-in-atlanta/