Hey Gang-
Let’s do it! The Carl/ Brad thing.
Up front, I am thankful that Brad Keselowski was not hurt, as well as any fans in the stands.
That said, if Brad had not gone air-born, what would the discussion be? IMO, not much, past Monday evening.
I want to also say that I understand that what Carl did was dirty & wrong.
Here we go.
In the first incident, the way I see it, when Carl started his move down, he was clear of Brad by more than a car length. When he tried to complete the move, Brad was there. Whose fault? IMO, a little on both, but I know that don’t fly because Brad never changed his line, Carl did and the result was a crash with these two + Joey Logano. GOT IT! I really believe that blame can be put on both drivers. I want to call this a racing incident and be done with it, please?
Should Carl have retaliated. IMO, NO.!!! Not under the circumstances presented, or IMO, at all. Again, a racing incident.
Where I have a problem is that Carl is taking a murderous wrap for something, that I think is not totally his fault.
We can argue about the effects of the Wing, but I believe that the Wing is the reason that Brad went air-born. I f Brad had spun out, into the infield, as planned by Carl, that would have been the end of it. And we would probably now be talking about how/when is Brad gonna get even.
People, this is old-school racing. NASCAR said, ”have at it boys”
Guess what, it happened!
I applaud NASCAR for separating the incident from the result when dealing the punishment. Personally, I thought the punishment should have been more; monetarily and many points deducted. But no suspension!
The only thing I can offer that would have stopped this, is if NASCAR had a rule that stated, “once a driver has reached the point that he/she cannot improve their point total, they are parked for the remainder of the race”.
My assessment- Carl should not have been on the track. Problem solved.
I don’t like the result, but I like the spirit!
I have to agree that once a driver can no longer gain points and advance they should not be allowed on the track. If a rule like that was in affect Carl would not have been on the track at all.
On the topic if retaliation. I don’t think any driver should be allowed to, but it has been happening every since the first race. And it will continue to happen. At least as long as a driver gets pissed off by another driver.
I think the punishment was enough or maybe more than enough. And in my opinion, If Brad continues to be “over aggressive”, this will happen again. Hopefully not the flipping part but he will get turned around.
Great Blog Dave.
Frank.