Auto Racing Capsules: NASCAR puts Carl Edwards on probation for three races

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sticking with its "boys, have at it" attitude, NASCAR placed Carl Edwards on probation for three races Tuesday for deliberately wrecking Brad Keselowski’s car last weekend in Atlanta.

Edwards will be monitored by NASCAR through the April 10 race at Phoenix but may drive in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said Edwards acted unacceptably Sunday but did not cross the line in what the sanctioning body will allow this season. NASCAR promised in January to give the drivers more leeway in policing themselves and settling scores in an effort to energize the sport.

"We made it very clear to (Edwards) that these actions were not acceptable and did go beyond what we said back in January about putting the driving back in the hands of the drivers," Helton said. "We believe (Edwards) understands our position at this point."

There had been a strong call from fans and analysts for NASCAR to suspend Edwards, who returned to the track down 153 laps from an earlier accident with Keselowski and intent on wrecking his car. He tried for at least one lap before succeeding with three laps to go, nudging Keselowski’s car and sending it airborne. The car banged hood-first off a retaining wall before flipping back onto its wheels. No one was hurt.

Keselowski supported NASCAR’s decision.

"They are not in an enviable position when it comes to these matters, but they do an outstanding job," he said in a statement, adding it was unfortunate the accident overshadowed Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch’s victory.

Edwards acknowledged his action was intentional but said he was surprised by Keselowski’s car taking flight. Because NASCAR approved greater driver leeway before the season, a severe punishment for Edwards most likely would have quashed the "have at it" attitude after the first test.

The decision to lighten up after years of penalizing drivers for minor infractions — Dale Earnhardt Jr. was once punished for cursing on TV; Jeff Gordon was placed on probation for shoving Matt Kenseth — was in large part due to increased fan excitement created by some 2009 feuds.

Denny Hamlin had a monthslong dispute with Keselowski, an aggressive young driver who has made no apologies for banging fenders with established veterans. Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya played retaliatory bumper-cars in the season finale at Homestead.

Helton said the day after the finale that NASCAR had perhaps gone too far in sterilizing the competition and acknowledged that more emotion and personality could benefit the sport. The "have at it" era was announced less than two months later, and Helton was not backing down Tuesday.

"The clear message, I think, we sent in January was that we were willing to put more responsibility in the hands of the driver," he said. "But there is a line you can cross and we’ll step in to maintain law and order when we think that line’s crossed."

Just what is that line?

"I think we see it when we see it," he replied.

Clint Bowyer, participating in a Goodyear tire test at Darlington, disagreed with NASCAR’s assessment.

"I think there’s a too far in everything and that was too far. Bottom line. Simple as that," Bowyer said. "That was a pretty scary incident that could’ve been a lot worse."

The fairly lenient punishment — many view probation as a slap on the wrist — drew swift and mixed reaction from drivers who jumped to their Twitter accounts during Helton’s 20-minute announcement.

"Huh!" wrote Kevin Harvick, who was suspended one race in 2002 for insubordination — he parked his truck at the door of the NASCAR hauler when he was summoned to discuss rough driving at Martinsville.

"I’m thinking about asking for a refund for all of my penalties!!!!"

But Scott Speed and Michael Waltrip applauded NASCAR’s decision.

"You can’t ask the driver to take their gloves off one week and then tell em to put ‘em back on the next," Waltrip wrote.

Helton said NASCAR saw two distinct parts to the accident: Edwards’ action; Keselowski’s car going airborne. The more serious of the two, in NASCAR’s opinion, is figuring out why Keselowski’s car acted as it did.

"That’s something that is very important to us, and we want to study very closely to figure out things that we can do to help prevent this very quickly in the future," Helton said. "This is a very important element of all of this, that I would ask all of us to be reminded of the fact of the car getting airborne was a very serious issue."

Sprint Cup drivers pleased with tires after tests

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Elliott Sadler had no complaints for Goodyear, only for those drivers griping about the manufacturer.

When asked what it meant that at least a dozen competitors faced tire trouble at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sadler was quick with a response: "Yeah, but there were 37 others that didn’t," he said Tuesday at Darlington Raceway.

Sadler and fellow Sprint Cup racers Marcos Ambrose and Clint Bowyer came to the track "Too Tough To Tame" to shake out the dormant raceway and give Goodyear some insight about what tire to bring to the Southern 500 in May.

Sadler said those racers bothered by tire compounds should instead look to their raceshops for better setups designed to minimize tire wear and maximize the rubber.

"I think it’s the best Goodyear tire we’ve had in Atlanta in years," Sadler said. "You can race really hard with it. You can race side-by-side."

Sadler acknowledged the complaints of some teams. "I know Denny Hamlin had one, he had a fast race car," Sadler said. "But he ran over something. To me, that’s not a tire issue."

Ambrose and Bowyer were also complimentary about Goodyear’s product.

"I had a flat in Atlanta and I think that was my first flat tire in three years," Bowyer said.

And Bowyer had more praise for Goodyear. He thought the tire brought to the California race last month showed vast improvement over what they’ve raced on there in the past. At Atlanta, "we were just as much to blame as them. Everybody was searching around for" the best air pressure levels.

"A lot of times, you can’t always blame Goodyear," Bowyer said.

Bowyer’s RCR Racing team tried different levels to see what worked best, pushing him from two laps down into the top 10.

"It wasn’t like we put a different tire company on it, we just tried different things within the boundaries," Bowyer said.

Ambrose continued to have problems at Darlington — not with tires, though, but with the track.

He finished 33rd here in the Southern 500 a year ago, his first time driving a Sprint Cup race at Darlington. It took him only a few laps Tuesday to spin out.

"I reaffirmed that the tire here was difficult to drive on," he said with a smile. "I couldn’t get around this place."

Darlington has changed the past two years since a multimillion dollar repaving gave the track a modern, slick surface. On top of that, Bowyer said the racers found a layer of grit and sand they needed to blow off with a few laps before they could get meaningful data that might help next May.

The machines used also featured the new spoilers NASCAR plans to debut in Martinsville on March 28.

Sadler said former Sprint driver Brett Bodine helped with the adjustment to the spoiler, which Sadler thinks might be the answer to keeping cars from going airborne.

Brad Keselowski lifted off the track surface last Sunday in a frightening wreck after getting intentionally hit by Carl Edwards. Edwards was placed on three weeks probation by NASCAR earlier Tuesday.

Sadler wasn’t too concerned about Edwards’ retaliation, a practice he says has gone on between drivers for generations. What worried him most was how quickly Keselowski’s car took to the air and how it could’ve landed in the stands with horrifying results.

"The spoiler seems to better at keeping these cars on the ground, which is what we need," Sadler said.

Bowyer expects an exciting, tightly contested race at Darlington in two months, helped by a Goodyear tire that will bring out the drivers’ best.

Sure, there are legitimate issues at times with Goodyear. The manufacturer, though, has learned from its breakdowns and improved, Bowyer said.

"I feel like they’ve done a good job of stepping up to the plate this year and creating some good racing for us so far," Bowyer said.

-- Pete Iacobelli

NASCAR suspends two for violating drug policy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR has suspended two crewmen for violating its substance abuse policy, including the former brother-in-law of Jeremy Mayfield.

William David Keith, a spotter for David Gilliland in the Sprint Cup Series, is one of the two crewmen and was suspended Tuesday.

Keith gave a deposition in Mayfield’s legal battle with NASCAR, claiming he witnessed Mayfield using methamphetamines several times. Mayfield became the first driver last May to be suspended under NASCAR’s toughened drug policy.

Matthew Huffstetler was the other crewman suspended. He works for Daisy Ramirez Motorsports in the Camping World Truck series.

Formula One

No refueling, more intrigue for F1 in 2010

BANGKOK— The Formula One season begins this week with yet another set of new rules and regulations, including an end to in-race refueling.

The refueling ban does not mean an end to pit stops, as cars will still be stopping to change tires. However, those stops will now be cut to about three seconds rather than the previous eight to 10 seconds of standing time while fuel was topped up.

In recent seasons, the cars that qualified in the top 10 had to start the race on the same fuel load they used in qualifying. Now, the top qualifiers will be handicapped by having to start the race on the tires they use to qualify, while those outside the top 10 get to use fresh rubber.

The combination of those two rules will make for a shift in tactics, in which the timing of the pit stops will be balanced between the condition of the initial set of tires and a calculation of how long the next set will be able to last.

"The strategy will be much different compared to last year," Ferrari driver Felipe Massa said during preseason testing. "When is the right time to come (to pit)? When is the right time to change the tires? What is the type of tire to use? You don’t know when we’re going to stop. It’s going to depend on the tires and on the strategy of the other cars."

Just as important as the in-race decision on when to pit will be the decision Saturday about whether to go all out in qualifying and damage the tires which must be used to start the race, or to settle for a slower time, forego that last qualifying lap and have the rubber in better condition for Sunday.

Tires that are a little fresher than that of a rival could be decisive on the opening lap or two of the race, given that this year the cars will be at their heaviest, and least responsive and maneuverable, in the opening stages.

These rules should benefit a driver who is experienced enough to make such judgments, and a driver who is either kind on his tires or has the skill to maintain pace on degrading rubber. The contrast will be marked at McLaren, for example, where Lewis Hamilton is an aggressive racer who rapidly uses up tires, while teammate Jenson Button has a smooth style.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn was excited by the challenge and dilemmas the new rules will bring.

"You could go all out for qualifying but you would then have to be lucky to have a car in the race," Brawn said. "It’s going to be difficult to balance both."

In cases where qualifying is dry and the race itself is in wet conditions — or vice versa — all cars will get new tires for the race and not the ones used in qualifying.

With no refueling — a cost-cutting measure due to the expense of each team hauling fuel rigs around the world — each car will have a much larger fuel tank this season. That has caused a redesign that makes the cars almost a foot longer than they were in 2009. Some teams have tried to capitalize on this by building up the rear bodywork so that it extends from the air intake above the driver’s head to connect with the rear wing.

The number of sets of tires allocated to each car over each grand prix meeting will be cut from 14 to 11. Teams won’t be able to get around this by skipping practice and hoarding all their sets for qualifying and race, as one set must be handed back to race authorities after Friday’s first practice session and another two after the second practice, regardless of whether they were used or not. So big teams and small teams alike will do comparable amounts of laps on Fridays.

Another key rule change is the points system. The 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system has been scrapped, replaced with 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

That puts more of a premium on winning. The old points system delivered the second-placed driver 80 percent of the points collected by the winner. Now it’s 72 percent. Whether that provides more incentive for the second-placed driver to chase down the leader remains to be seen.

Qualifying will follow the same three-stage format, with adjustments to allow for the expansion of the field from 20 to 24 cars. The number of competitors eliminated after stages one and two will be increased from five to seven, still leaving 10 drivers in the final qualifying stage.

Front tires have been narrowed from a maximum width of 27 centimeters to 24.5, and wheel covers have been banned. But double diffusers will again be here. And just like last year, when they caused much legal argument, there is again the potential for challenges to stewards over how teams have interpreted rules which regulate the design of the diffusers, which manage air flow under the car.

Another contentious addition of 2009 — the KERS power-boost system — has been banished for 2010, by consensus among the Formula One Teams Association rather than actual regulation. KERS was problematic in 2009, with many teams spending large sums to develop the technology while only two — Ferrari and McLaren — used it regularly.

--Chris Lines

Sports Cars

Council to examine bringing Grand Prix race to OKC

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City council has unanimously approved a proposal that could bring an American Le Mans Series Grand Prix race to the city as soon as next year.

The council voted Tuesday to adopt a resolution allowing City Manager Jim Couch to start negotiations with a group called Oklahoma City Grand Prix LLC.

Longtime local sports executive Brad Lund is a partner in the Oklahoma City Grand Prix LLC and says negotiations could take from four to eight weeks. He says a 1.9-mile road course around Oklahoma City’s downtown Bricktown district is being planned.