Sunday

When Stupid Gets Deadly

What began as a run-of-the-mill Atlanta 500 turned into a spectacle that left a number of wrecked racecars and also left a lesson in what happens when rivalry goes beyond the boundary of competition. For the second straight year Kurt Busch took home the Atlanta 500, and it came 30 years after his car owner, Roger Penske, fielded a car that finished second in this same race – ironically it finished second to a #2, the 2 of Rod Osterlund.

It was also a rare moment when the sport’s monolith, Hendrick Motorsports, hit a wall, as its cover boy won the pole and then largely disappeared and its other three cars struggled or wrecked. The recent dominance of Jimmie Johnson has earned comparison to Richard Petty’s dominance of yore, another irony as Richard’s #43 raced its way to a solid finish and two of AJ Allmendinger’s teammates came home just ahead of him.

But what will monopolize reaction will be the explosion of the feud between Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards, an explosion that came in a shocking fashion. With the wreckage cleaned up, four issues jostled for attention -

1 – By now it is obvious that Brad Keselowski should be parked. It’s one thing to be a sparkling new talent in the sport, and Keselowski has proven that in a wild two seasons still highlighted by a debut victory that retains shock value. But the more he races the more clear his lethality can be. The Atlanta 500 illustrated his talent and also his lethality, as an early wreck happened because of him, and it has been an ongoing aspect of his still-young career.

Talent is a necessity for the sport, but never at the expense of sense and safety.

2 – And everything that applies to Keselowski also applies to Carl Edwards. Edwards has been in scrapes before, certainly not of the egregious caliber displayed by Keselowski in the past. What happened in the Atlanta 500, though, escalated the lethality of his racing enormously. While he may say he never intended for Keselowski to tumble, it doesn’t matter in the end. The hit that flipped over Keselowski was intentional – one need not review the high-def replay showing Edwards jerking the wheel right as he leaned on Keselowski’s bumper. When you’re 150-plus laps down you’re not supposed to be racing anyone.

3 – The wreck will raise the question seemingly no one wants to ask – at what point does a driver deserve to be suspended for a period of races? It is a question that needs to be asked as NASCAR has seen plenty of “aggressive” driving incidents before and responded with weak punishments that amounted to nothing substantial. It is worth asking given the brutality involved in this recent incident – what has to happen for NASCAR to suspend either Keselowski or Edwards?

4 – There is also the issue of the fact the cars are fast enough now to get airborne like this. Atlanta’s speed issue was a problem in the 1990s – enough that NASCAR tested a restrictor plate at least once there. It was an issue in Steve Grissom’s 1997 melee that ripped open a concrete wall; it was an issue in a series of serious driver injuries and at least one death in the late 1990s. Even as the asphalt wore out the speeds at Atlanta have been absurd for the size of the speedway. For Keselowski to flip over as he did should raise serious questions about why the speeds haven’t been restricted here.

When it all shook out it turned out to be a race with more than the usual to offer, and it leaves the sport looking somewhat different from what was expected before Daytona. But it also leaves the issues inherent when stupid gets deadly.