‘Have at it’ has its limits, boys

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News

NASCAR Wire Service

No, the “Boys, have at it” era isn’t dead.

But it has limits, and Carl Edwards found them.

NASCAR’s decision to dock Edwards 60 championship points and fine him $25,000 for wrecking Brad Keselowski on the way to Saturday night’s Nationwide Series victory at Gateway International Raceway shouldn’t be viewed as repudiation of the sanctioning body’s laissez-faire attitude toward its competitors.

“Boys, have at it” was never meant to condone a free-for-all. And until NASCAR starts numbering its cars 007 and 008, drivers don’t have a license to kill, figuratively speaking, when they’re on the racetrack.

It’s easy to understand the 60-point penalty. Essentially, it restores the prerace status quo. Keselowski, the series leader, was 227 points ahead of second-place Edwards entering the event. After the penalty, he’s 228 points ahead — almost as if the race never took place.

Edwards keeps the win but doesn’t profit from it in the standings. In addition, both drivers are on NASCAR probation across all three major series until the end of the year.

“NASCAR racing from Day 1 has always been highly competitive, and there’s an age-old saying that in NASCAR, if you ain’t rubbing, you ain’t racing,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said. “And I think that’s what the NASCAR fan, the NASCAR stakeholders all bought into, and all expect.

“Now, our role is to deliver that correctly, and it also comes with the responsibility of maintaining law and order.”

Rubbing is what Keselowski did to Edwards in Turns 1 and 2 of the final lap at Gateway. Rubbing is what Kurt Busch did to Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps of the recent Cup race at New Hampshire. Though Johnson said he wanted to wreck Busch in retaliation, he instead executed a comparable bump-and-run on Busch and won the race.

“He didn’t wreck me, and at the end of the day, I guess I didn’t owe him a visit to the fence,” Johnson said after the race.

If there’s one thing that might ring false about NASCAR’s announcement on Wednesday, it’s the probation to Keselowski for “actions detrimental to stock car racing/aggressive driving.” Keselowski did nothing more to Edwards than Busch and Johnson did to each other.

However, both drivers were warned after the Atlanta incident. That other cars were damaged in the last-lap crash at Gateway also was a factor.

From a practical standpoint, Keselowski’s probation is useful. In punishing Edwards, NASCAR dilutes Keselowski’s incentive to retaliate and perhaps to knock Edwards out of a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at a crucial juncture in the next seven Cup races. The probation all but takes revenge out of the equation.

A suspension to Edwards would have been too severe, in that, for practical purposes, it would have conceded the series championship to Keselowski. In fulfilling its law-and-order function, NASCAR found an ideal middle ground.

Reid Spencer covers NASCAR for The Sporting News.