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HAMPTON, Ga. — Carl Edwards got even, but in the process, he might have bitten off a bit more than he can chew…points-wise, that is.

Edwards retaliated against Brad Keselowski near the end of the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday, 283 laps after Keselowski sent Edwards for a ride that severely damaged his Scotts Ford.

The result was Keselowski’s car getting airborne and hitting the wall in the frontstretch, bringing back painful memories of a similar crash between the two at Talladega Superspeedway last April.

The two antagonists were crystal clear in their remarks after the race, and they were the only ones. Everyone else refused to comment on much of anything, including NASCAR.

“It looked like it could have been payback from the No. 99 [Edwards] on the No. 12 [Keselowski],” said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton after the race. “We talked with Carl after the race and we have an understanding about it and we will talk internally again as a group on Monday or Tuesday of this week and make any decision on if there will be any other actions that we will take.”

Edwards was clear, if understated, in his comments once his car reached the garage area.

“Brad knows the deal between him and me,” Edwards said. “The scary part is his car went airborne, which is not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we’re out here to race and people have to have respect for one another and I have a lot of respect for people’s safety.

“I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK and we’ll just go on and race some more and maybe he and I won’t get into any more incidents together.”

Keselowski, who has a reputation as a hard charger who gets into his share of incidents, was more aggrieved.

“To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that’s not cool,” he said. “You could have killed someone in the grandstands. I know that’s a little ironic that it’s got me saying that, but at least I didn’t do it intentionally when it happened.

“It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball; if they’re going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or the grandstands. It’s not cool to intentionally wreck someone at 195 miles per hour.”

Keselowski was the one doing the bumping at Talladega last year, when Edwards’ car turned sideways and flew first to Ryan Newman’s windshield, then the outer wall and catchfence. Fans were injured in that incident, and Keselowski made the case that it was just hard racing.

The incident that triggered Edwards’ retaliation happened on lap 41.

“We were on the restart and I was going for the bottom,” Edwards said. “I knew Brad was peeking inside, but I thought he’d give me just a little bit of room and he didn’t and we ended up overlapping. I had it saved and I guess I got into the 20 car at the very top of the race track.

“I didn’t see that part of it, but it’s so frustrating for a number of reasons, most of which is that I love racing here. I love this race track and I want to be out there driving right now. I know Brad has made his career on being super-aggressive. We both had a part in it and it’s not his fault, but it’s just a little too aggressive overall, I think, for that early in the race and caused us to wreck.”

Keselowski, to continue the he-said, he-said banter, said he did back off, just not enough.

“He cut down on me on a restart and I lifted,” he said. “I couldn’t lift fast enough for him. I lifted to let him in, but I was there. I don’t know what more you can do…car low…that’s what they say.

“I was underneath him and tried to cut him a break. It was too late, though, he turned down. I apologized to him, but there was nothing I could do in that situation.”

Keselowski has had run-ins with several drivers in both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series, including Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya.