Carl Edwards has been placed on probation for three Sprint Cup races, but there will be no suspension, NASCAR President Mike Helton announced this afternoon.
NASCAR Gives Carl Edwards A Wrist-Slap, No Suspension
Edwards intentionally spun Brad Keselowski in a retaliatory move late in Sunday’s race, and NASCAR parked him for the remainder of the event.
But Edwards will not lose any points or miss any events, Helton said.
Helton said he spoke to Edwards after the race and the driver understood his actions went beyond the “Have at it” policy which encouraged drivers to police themselves.
“There is a line you can cross, and we’ll step in to maintain law and order when we think that line is crossed,” Helton said.
While there’s no written policy as to when retaliation goes too far, Helton said NASCAR officials know when they need to step in.
“We see it when we see it,” he said. “There’s obviously been an evolution of a relationship between these two drivers.”
Helton said NASCAR will meet with both drivers and their owners prior to the Bristol race to make sure Edwards and Keselowski talk out their differences and come to a better understanding before they hit the track again.
“If there’s a rivalry that goes beyond that racing, then they need to figure out how to manage that before we get involved,” he said.
Helton said aside from Edwards’ actions, NASCAR’s bigger concern was keeping the cars on the ground. He said officials were perplexed as to why it happened.
“The 12 car getting airborne is a much more serious topic to us right now,” Helton said. “It’s been years since we’ve seen that [at a 1.5-mile track]. A lot of our effort is figuring out how that happened, why that happened and to prevent it from happening in the future.”
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