HAMPTON, Ga. – Diplomacy, at least for race winner Kurt Busch, comes in the form of keeping one’s mouth shut.
“The best way for me to approach this is to put myself in both drivers’ situations,” he said of the incident between his Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. “If I was in the situation, you know, it’s one thing to sweat somebody and pinch him a little bit up against the wall, take their line away, or to make it hard on them for a few laps, or for a full run if you want to, but to see what had happened, why it happened, I don’t know what led up to that.
“I can’t really speak on which way NASCAR’s gonna view it. But the way I view it is, hey, if NASCAR disciplines Edwards for it, that’s what they saw in their mind. If they don’t, that’s what they saw in their mind and that’s why they didn’t react.
“It’s not for me to judge how to penalize somebody.”
- Before that, however, Busch said he was “a bit disturbed” by what he saw on the replay.
“To see a guy that’s a hundred laps down take out a guy that’s run really well, that was a tough, tough pill to swallow,” he said. “It reminded me of when Keselowski was racing Edwards hard for the win at Talladega, and Edwards ended on the short end of the stick. That was racing for a win. That wasn’t where you were a hundred laps down.”
- Can things get much worse for Robby Gordon? A brand-new race car did not survive a hard trip to the concrete in turn two after a right-rear tire came apart on lap four. He’s fine; his car is toast.
- “I like old, slick, wore-out race tracks,” said Brian Vickers. He really likes Atlanta, then. It’s the new Darlington!
- Kyle Busch has a deep respect for Jimmie Johnson and the Lowe’s team. “They’re the best of the best,” he said. “There’s no question that the 48 team is the best team probably in history.”
- Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart had to drop to the rear of the field for the start for changing engines after practice, and Greg Biffle wadded up his Ford and had to go to the rear as well.
- During practice and qualifying, the temperatures were fairly low and that meant the cars were bottoming out. “The track has a lot of grip in it right now, and we run these cars so close to the ground so it doesn’t take much to put them over the edge,” said David Reutimann. “With the speeds being up and the track being rough in spots, the cars are getting into the track pretty hard.”
- LifeLock has joined The Folds of Honor Foundation as a sponsor. LifeLock will promote the foundation, which takes care of military families with educational support and opportunities. The foundation provided Major Ed Pulido’s daughters with full college scholarships after he lost a leg and underwent 38 surgeries.
- U.S. Olympic Bobsled gold medalist Steve Holcomb had good things to say about Boris Said, a long-time supporter of the Bo-Dyne Bobsled Project. “He does it a lot and is a big supporter,” Holcomb said. When informed that Boris was only one of two drivers not to have turned a sled over, he laughed. “Just jinxed himself, didn’t he? You don’t mess with the bobsled drivers!”
- Kevin Harvick knows how to endear himself to the media. Asked if he anticipated the RCR cars being as strong as they have been in the early races (with the added implication that the media didn’t anticipate it either), Harvick laughed. “I don’t listen to anything you guys anticipate. I know that for sure.”
- Tony Stewart on the rigors of being a team owner/driver/superstar. “I have to send girlfriends out to go shop for me because I can’t even tell you what the current clothes are. I have to send somebody to do it for me so I don’t look like I’m stuck in the ’80s anymore.”
- How are things between the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammates who crashed last week at Las Vegas? “He sent me a text saying ‘la-la-la-la-la’ and he was sorry and the whole thing,” said Juan Montoya of Jamie McMurray. “I said don’t worry about it. It happens. It’s racing. Move on.”
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