Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards anxious to meet with NASCAR officials, put feud behind them

By Bob Pockrass

Friday, March 19, 2010

Carl Edwards during NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Friday.

Elmer Kappell
NASCAR Illustrated

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BRISTOL, Tenn. – Brad Keselowski is interested in what NASCAR officials have to say to him Saturday morning and how fans react two weeks after his controversial run-in with Carl Edwards at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Edwards intentionally wrecked Keselowski March 7 at Atlanta, sending his car airborne in retaliation for an earlier incident in the race and a series of run-ins over the past year.

Keselowski, Edwards and their team owners, Roger Penske and Jack Roush, are expected to meet with NASCAR officials Saturday morning at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I really don’t know [what to expect],” Keselowski said Friday. “I know I’m going to bring my ears. … I am coming more to listen than I am to talk.

“I hope everything is OK and everybody walks out and feels like that they’re done. I’m really watching and listening.”

Keselowski – who also quipped, “I hope there’s doughnuts. I like doughnuts” – said he didn’t expect NASCAR to tell him to race any differently. He said he expects they all will meet and try to understand each driver’s feelings about the incident at Atlanta and what led to it. As far as NASCAR’s policy to loosen the reins on drivers, Keselowski said he believes that is still a work in progress.

Edwards also said he hopes the meeting provides some closure.

“We’ll just go to the meeting and we’ll take care of it,” Edwards said. “I really think that we’ll come out of it better. In the end, hopefully, this is something that six months from now we can look back and go, ‘Man, I’m glad that’s over with,’ and everybody will maybe understand one another better.”

Keselowski seemed just as interested in how the fans will react to the two drivers. When Keselowski spun in qualifying Friday, fans at Bristol cheered. Keselowski thinks it was because he saved the car and not that he wrecked.

“I’m more interested in how the fans are going to react,” Keselowski said. “The fans are like the ultimate gauge in our sport and ultimately they say what’s right and what’s wrong. I’m interested in that.”

While he hasn’t talked to many drivers about his aggressive driving style, Keselowski said he talked with Jeff Gordon. Gordon told him about some of the trials and tribulations he went through earlier in his career.

“He told me … how there’s no real way to make it through it without just going through the hard times and to just stay tough,” Keselowski said.

Besides Gordon, Keselowski said other drivers have not come and talked to him in recent weeks. He said drivers being critical of him are just trying to knock him down.

“I’ve tried talking to a few of them,” Keselowski said. “They didn’t really seem all that interested to be honest, even the ones that I really don’t feel like I’ve done anything to make mad.”

Keselowski said he will continue to race the way he has the last year.

“Part of running well is making your competitors angry,” Keselowski said. “I’m sure there’s a part of it where they’re angry because I might have made contact with them. But like I’ve said all along, I can point the finger back the other way and say just as many times where I have been right as I’ve been wrong.

“I’m not going to sit here and whine about it. It’s all even in my mind. When you first come into this sport, I don’t think other drivers are OK with it being even.”

Again, Keselowski said he wasn’t interested in delivering more payback to Edwards.

“He may be an easier target for everybody else but not for me,” Keselowski said. “I’m really not thinking about him to be honest. It’s a disservice on my team to worry about him. We’re focusing on what to do to run up front with our cars.”

Edwards, too, said he is focused on his own car.

“I just go race as hard as I can,” Edwards said. “I’ve got a lot bigger things to worry about. We need to run better.”

Keselowski needs to run better, too, but one thing Keselowski and his team won’t do in the wake of the accident is make legal changes to the chassis in the upper roll cage that will reduce weight but possibly compromise safety.

“At the start of the year that was one of the things at the bottom of our list to address,” Keselowski said. “After last week, we decided not to do that.”

As far as what team owner Roger Penske has told him, Keselowski said Penske wasn’t critical of him.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with him,” Keselowski said. “He’s really a lot funnier guy than I think he gets credit for. He laughed around and joked about it a little bit.

“There’s no real advice that came from it other than to focus on what’s coming up in front of you and don’t look behind you.”

Keselowski said he has had fun with the whole controversy and that generating interest in the sport is “always positive.” On the other hand, he said he feels bad that teammate Kurt Busch didn’t get more publicity for winning at Atlanta.

“There’s some little bit of me that is having fun with it and there is some part that thinks it’s really funny that the on-track accomplishments I have had have gotten absolutely zero coverage and the off-track things or the incidents get all the coverage,” Keselowski said.

But after the last few weeks, Keselowski wouldn’t mind other drivers being in the spotlight.

“Everybody else needs to take some heat,” Keselowski said. “I’m OK with that. There’s 43 of us out there and it seems a little weird that it focuses on me and Carl. I’m sure over the next few weeks it will make its way around. It might even be this week.”