Carl Edwards says he wrecked Brad Keselowski ‘for a damn good reason’ as he prepares to relive controversial Atlanta incident
Carl Edwards spins Brad Keselowski in the Kobalt Tools 500 in retaliation for an earlier crash. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Illustrated
As the Sprint Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Labor Day weekend race, all eyes will be on Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.
Why?
Because Atlanta was the site of the most spectacular and one of the most controversial incidents of the season.
The long-running Edwards-Keselowski feud took center stage at Atlanta March 7 when Edwards retaliated against Keselowski, spinning him out and sending Keselowski’s car flying through the air in one of the most frightening crashes of the season.
Edwards hit Keselowski in retaliation for earlier contact, but the incident went much deeper than that. The two had had plenty of run-ins in the past year, including Keselowski sending Edwards’ car airborne when the two collided while headed to the finish line in the Sprint Cup race at Talladega in 2009.
Edwards and Keselowski were forced to meet with NASCAR officials at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks after the Atlanta race and appeared to put the incident behind them.
Their feud was reignited in July, however, when the two drivers got into again. Keselowski bumped Edwards out of the lead on the final lap of the Nationwide Series race at Gateway, and Edwards responded by wrecking Keselowski for the win, causing another scary crash. Edwards was fined for the incident and both drivers were placed on probation.
Though there have been numerous driver feuds this season, none have been as heated as the Edwards-Keselowski tiff.
It was sparked by the incident at Atlanta, which caused a horrifying crash. Though the result was unintentional, it made Edwards look bad.
Though both drivers are on probation and are unlikely to continue their feud, the Atlanta incident likely will be relived over and over this weekend, with video footage being shown countless times on prerace shows.
Edwards knows it will be a hot topic, but he’s not backing down from what he did.
“It’s a spectacular result, so I assume we’ll see that a lot for a long time,” Edwards said two weeks ago at Bristol. “It’s pretty amazing people give me all this credit that I knew exactly how to flip a car over at a track that a car has never flipped over like that before.
“That turned into the worst-case scenario, or the most dramatic scenario, far from what I expected. It’s funny, if you look at this sport objectively, if you look at what’s going on sometimes in different situations, it’s pretty amazing how this same situation with the same set of circumstances can get twisted in so many ways depending on who is involved or what people say about it.”
The incident at Atlanta, followed by the wreck at Gateway, coupled with a series of run-ins with other drivers over the years, has left Edwards with a reputation as a hothead that struggles to control his temper.
Kevin Harvick even called him “fake” after the Atlanta incident, sparking a name-calling spat between the two.
Though Edwards also is known as a nice, friendly guy, he struggles to shake the hot-head reputation. But it doesn’t seem to bother him much.
“It’s really simple,” he says. “I treat everyone the way they treat me. I’m not gonna let somebody take advantage of me. That’s all there is to it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gone out and been the aggressor of a situation or a bully or anything like that, but I’m not gonna let somebody take advantage of me. You guys obviously have a lot of opinions about that, but the people who know me and know what I’m about, it makes pretty good sense to them, but, for some reason, I guess some people don’t like that or don’t understand it.”
Edwards has said repeatedly that he did not mean for Keselowski’s car to get airborne at Atlanta, but that he did mean to wreck him. He will approach this weekend’s race, he says, like he does every other race.
“What I’m gonna do is, I’m just gonna go race my car as hard as I can and be the best person I can be just like I’ve always done and if people don’t understand that, that’s their problem,” he said.
“I did what I did and I did it for a damn good reason. I stand up and take responsibility for my actions and I’ve always done that, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just the way it went.”
