Some feuds are manufactured just for TV audiences. Some involve deep, personal issues that are not fully understood by anyone outside the immediate circumstance. And some feuds are just what they seem to be.
Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards are the Hatfields and McCoys of the NASCAR circuit. As far as I can tell, they were nothing more and nothing less than two guys who happened to compete in the same sport until Talladega 2009. Keselowski, who had at that point never won a Cup race, gave Edward’s car a little nudge – into the fence – on his way to earning his first career Sprint Cup victory.
Nothing new there; it happens all the time. It’s also nothing new for drivers to retaliate when they feel wronged by another driver. Like Edwards did a few months back in Hotlanta, drop kicking Keselowski into the fence in the final laps. Edwards earned an unusual probation from the NASCAR Grand Poobah for that strike.
Then came the little tete a tete last weekend. After most of the mash up this year, at least one driver involved seemed at least a little bit apologetic. Not this time around. The stories of both drivers could be basically be summed up as “I didn’t do anything, and anyway he had it coming.”
NASCAR saw it differently. They fined Ewards 60 points and put both drivers on probation for the remainder of the calendar year. The fine essentially erases the gain that Edwards made on Keselowki’s lead in the Nationwide Series standings, but came a far cry short of actually taking away his victory.
Probation until 2011 means two things: 1) they’ll have to play nice for the rest of the year and 2) they’ll have another six months of built up resentment behind them when they first meet in next year’s NASCAR season.
As Daryl Waltrip might say – Boogedy boogedy boogedy; we’ve got ourselves a feud, boys!
