Two weeks after a heated incident on the racetrack in Atlanta where Carl Edwards settled a score with the young and aggressive Brad Keselowski by launching him into the air on an intentional spin during the Kobalt Tools 500, the fire hasn’t yet been extinguished. The Edwards/Keselowski rivalry has been played up in the media over the course of the last two weeks, and the war will only escalate March 21 at Bristol.
Both Edwards and Keselowski have taken hits from other NASCAR drivers and fans stemming from the Atlanta melee, Edwards for being irrational and having an uncontrollable temper and Keselowski for pushing too hard while on the track, and all eyes are on the Bristol Motor Speedway’s Food City 500 to watch how the two Cup Series drivers will act toward each other in the first time they meet since the Atlanta incident on March 7.
A signifier of what’s to come at Bristol can be found within Keselowski’s selection for an introductory song at the Food City 500 on Sunday. Sprint Cup Series drivers get to pick their own songs for driver introductions before NASCAR races, and Keselowski sent a message to the rest of the Cup Series drivers – Carl Edwards in particular – this week, choosing Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” as his theme song (Edwards, on the other hand, went with Spiderbait’s “Black Betty.”)
While Edwards and Keselowski may be done with on-track confrontations (for now, at least), the result of Edwards’ Atlanta bump came with a price for both drivers. Edwards is currently on a three-race probationary period, while Keselowski has become the topic of criticism in the NASCAR garage, as drivers have made public several grumblings that have been circulating since Keselowksi’s Cup Series debut in 2008.
Most significantly, NASCAR living legend Jimmie Johnson has come forward with some words of advice for Keselowski, a young driver still gaining ground in the Cup Series. The Orlando Sentinel reported on a recent interview with Johnson in which the esteemed JJ gave some advice to Kez, saying, “I think Brad needs to know that there are a lot of guys he’s rubbed the wrong way. I think he needs to stay true to who he is, I do respect that. But you look through the garage area, he has for whatever reason turned the garage against him. If I were in his shoes I would be working hard to correct that.”
Instead of heeding his advice, however, Keselowski seems to have stepped on the gas and ditched any notion of cooling off his overly aggressive tendencies for the near future. Sprint Cup Series fans with <a href=”http://www.stubhub.com/nascar-tickets/”>NASCAR tickets</a> to upcoming races will certainly continue to see Brad Keselowski infuriating other drivers with the same violation of unspoken race conduct that has made him one of the bad guys amongst NASCAR drivers. After all, his aggressive driving has helped him become one of the top competitors on the stock car circuit, consistently running toward the top of the pack.
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