NASCAR announced Edwards would be docked 60 points in the Nationwide driver’s championship standings, fined $25,000 and placed on probation in all NASCAR series until Dec. 31. Brad Keselowski who's was the target of Edward's retaliation was placed on probation in all NASCAR series races until Dec. 31, but was not docked any driver points or issued any fine for his part in the
Gateway crash.
Jack Roush, owner of Edwards' No. 60 Ford, was also docked 60 owner points after the latest run-in between the feuding drivers ended with a multi-car accident over the weekend.
Edwards and Keselowski were battling for the lead on the final lap when Keselowski nudged Edwards out of the way coming out of Turn 2. Edwards returned the favor a few seconds later, sending Keselowski into the outside wall coming out of Turn 4. Keselowski slid toward the inside wall before being struck by several opponents, his car a shattered mess as it crossed the finish line in 14th while Edwards celebrated his second win of the season reported
Fanhouse.
“The sum of the night, the whole last-lap thing, we felt like it came to a head and we just had to react to it,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition. “We owed that to the garage; we owed that to the Nationwide competitors
Though NASCAR has publicly encouraged drivers to police themselves by encouraging a "boys, have at it" philosophy, director of competition Robin Pemberton said Keselowski and Edwards took things a little too far even though Edwards maintained afterward he was not at fault. NASCAR disagreed.
"We felt like at that time they had stepped over the line of what we would consider to be good, aggressive, healthy hard racing," Pemberton said.
Pemberton
said it became obvious to NASCAR officials that there was wrongdoing after spending considerable time reviewing videotape of the incident and discussing what happened. He also explained in detail how NASCAR determined what penalties to hand out.
“In a nutshell, I think you know that these two drivers have a history with each other. So therefore we feel like they are both held accountable in some way, shape or form,” Pemberton said. “I think therefore you look at the Turn 1 and 2 incident, and then you look at the retaliation in Turn 4. We feel like the penalty was warranted -- and basically by coming up with the 60 points, that puts the points race back to where it was, roughly, pre-event on Saturday night. So it takes away any of the advantage that Carl would have gained by taking out Brad.”
The 26-year-old Keselowski, who has irritated some of his more experienced competitors with his all-out driving style, called the incident "unfortunate."
"There was unnecessary damage done to a lot of race cars as a result of the incident, including one of our best cars," he said. "We support NASCAR's decision and we look forward to putting this behind us."
