Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
That seems to be NASCAR's problem following a nasty payback incident in Atlanta last weekend that saw a car flip into the fence in a frightening high-speed crash.
Just before the 2010 season began, NASCAR announced that it would put policing back in the hands of the drivers. And on Lap 323 of the Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the logic of that decision was put to the test.
Running 156 laps down on the leaders, Carl Edwards meted out some Wild West justice on Brad Keselowski, who caused the No. 99 Ford driver to crash early in the race and go to the garage for repairs.
Edwards got into Keselowski's left rear quarter panel and turned the Penske driver. The car spun backward and then caught some air, flipping once into the wall before coming back down onto the track. Keselowski walked away with a sore ankle.
Almost 300 laps earlier, Keselowski had bumped Edwards on a restart and sent him into Joey Logano, putting both drivers in the wall.
After Keselowski's backward somersault, NASCAR black-flagged an unrepentant Edwards and sent him to the garage early. "Well, Brad knows the deal between him and I," Edwards said after exiting the race.
"The scary part was that his car went airborne, which is not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we come out here to race and people got to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people's safety. I wish that wouldn't have gone like it did, but I'm glad he's OK."
While fingers point at Edwards for a dangerous move at high speed, this kind of frontier justice is exactly what NASCAR wanted.
In its preseason announcement of a new approach to on-track incidents, Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice-president of competition, explained that the attitude of the series would be simple: "Boys, have at it and have a good time."
Unfortunately, it seems that NASCAR is allowing its marketing staff to dictate racing safety. With fan interest dipping over the past year, the new laissez-faire policy in relation to on-track clashes was supposed to bring more excitement to the racing.
Instead, it allows drivers to use their cars as high-speed battering rams that can turn their victims into 1,600-kilogram projectiles.
Indeed, a similar incident in last April's Aaron's 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway, Keselowski bumped Edwards in the run to the finish and sent the No. 99 flying upside down into the catch fence. The debris from Edwards' car injured several fans.
But despite the inherent danger, some drivers, like Ryan Newman, think that NASCAR should just let drivers work it out among themselves, rather than have the series separate the combatants.
"I think it would have been a whole lot better if they'd got back and got to fight it out a little bit," he said. "That would be a lot more interesting than getting black-flagged."
Young Canadians
in GP3 Series test
Canadian racers Robert Wickens, who turns 21 on Saturday, and Daniel Morad, 19, tested for the Status Grand Prix team in the new GP3 Series last week at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, as the pair continue to try out for a seat in the Formula One development series.
Wickens was the quickest of the three Status drivers on both days, putting up the fifth-best time on the first day of the test and following that with the ninth-fastest time on Day 2. Unfortunately, the first day of the test saw gearbox problems limit the drivers' track time substantially. Morad was 24th-quickest on Day 1 and 20th the following day.
Motocross star
at Toronto show
Canadian motorcycle racing fans might want to head to the Monster Energy Supercross on Saturday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto to catch a glimpse of up-and-coming motocross star Dean Wilson, 18.
A Scottish-born rider who moved to Calgary to pursue his career, Wilson took four Canadian National Championships, with the first coming at 11.
His pro debut last month in the Supercross Lites East saw him take a sixth in the Indianapolis, which he followed with a fourth in Atlanta two weeks ago. Last weekend, he mastered a long and rough Daytona course to score his first podium finish for third. He is also third in points.
