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Carl Edwards may have Aflac as a sponsor but Brad Keselowski may be the one needing a policy. Edwards and Keselowski were back to their traditional ways Saturday night racking and wrecking.

Saturday night marked a return to the feud. The two drivers (and Kevin Harvick for a bit) were the drivers to beat in the event. Before the green flag dropped on the final restart you couldn’t help but notice something was about to happen. Edwards and Keselowki were going to start 1-2 on the restart with a race win in the balance.

The two drivers have had differences in the past that culminated in Atlanta earlier this when Edwards sent Keselowski’s #12 airborne towards the end of the race. This was an obvious response to an incident earlier in the day that took Edwards out of the race after Keselowski got into him and rendered his car damaged and off the track for most of the day.

NASCAR sat down with the two drivers following the Atlanta incident and for the most part the two had kept off each other since but like any good race rubbin’ rivaly things aren’t over ever.

Everyone watching could tell there was going to be contact. I looked over at my wife and said “Here comes the bump and run.” Sure enough it didn’t take long for that to happen. Keselowki bumped Edwards to take the lead. Retaliation was coming. Edwards had a pair of turns left and Keselowski had to feel like he was running away from a bully.

Edwards caught Keselowski and then spun him into the wall creating a ugly crash that marred a pretty good night of racing by the two.

At first I wasn’t bothered by the crash. After all Keselowki had gotten into Edwards to take the lead and Edwards returning the favor could be justified. But then Edwards opened his mouth and spoke words of hate that sent the temperature of the drivers and fans to a new level.

Edwards back-flipped his way out of his car into the cheers of a home town crowd. When asked what happened on the last lap he responded that he could not let Keselowski take that win away from him. Edwards mentioned how hard his team had worked and then proceeded to justify his activity.

“I hate to see stuff tore up but we came here to win and he took it from us in turn 1.” Edwards then went into a plug of all his sponsors and turned the focus to his appreciation of the fans before again turning the focus back to him.  “I couldn’t let him take it from me. I had to do what I had to do.”

Equally as bad as the two wrecking each other was the danger they placed the other competitors in. This type racing is simply  irresponsible and does nothing to further the resume of either driver or that of the Nationwide Series.

The father of Brad, former driver Bob Keselowski, was angry proclaiming that “I’m sick and tired of this, I’ll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He’s not gonna kill my boy.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if something was loose in the head of Edwards. After all racing hard is one thing but suggesting that a driver had that coming to him because he was going to beat you is simply insane.

At that point I turned my focus to Facebook. I was curious what other fans were saying. The majority of the fans on the Rousch-Fenway Racing page were split into two categories. Those who were dissapointed and upset with the way Edwards had raced and a second group of fans who were happy because Carl got a win and this would as one fan posted “cleanse the pussy fans of Edwards out.”

Something tells me the sponsors of Edwards aren’t exactly hoping for a cleansing of anything. That would only mean dollars out of their wallets. Edwards crossed the line last night, and no matter what side of the fence you sit on you have to agree to some extent he was provoked with the bump and run in the previous set of turns. But was it necessary to do what he did coming to the line? He got a victory maybe that’s all Carl Edwards cares about besides Subway, Copart.com, Vitamin Water and Aflac.

As the years have gone on Edwards has increasingly become a very corporate driver to the point that Kevin Harvick called him “fake as hell” following his incident with Keselowki at Atlanta.

The Roush Fenway drivers are hardly the most talkative and expression filled but Edwards is clearly trying his best to be the jerk of the group. He’s had run in’s in the past with teammate Matt Kenseth and his style of racing this year coupled with his comments have made it to the point he’s simply a pull string dummy. Any interview with Edwards is fulled with sponsor plugs and even on his Facebook he is casual Friday business.

My two year old son liked “the duck” and to a lesser extent “seventeen”. Now it’s hard to even allow him to wear a Carl Edwards t-shirt much less support a driver who puts winning a Nationwide race above the safety of other drivers. I have taken all the necessary steps such as covering up the #99 sticker on our car and keeping those aforementioned t-shirts in the drawer.

NASCAR will likely think this one over for a few days and Edwards will probably release another statement saying he is sorry about what happened but those words are just covering his own backside. Edwards true feelings were on display Saturday night and everyone saw him for who he is.

Popularity: 7% [?]

While everyone seemed to think Elliott Sadler would be heading else where in 2011 since the beginning of this year the driver himself finally was signing the same tune last week.

It would be of little surprise if Sadler was indeed out of the #19 car at seasons end. The most obvious reason would be a complete lack of success. Say what you want about the teams Sadler has raced for but since moving into the #19 car midway though the 2006 season the driver has totaled 0 wins, 3 top-5’s and 17 top-10’s in 141 races. Forget Jeff Gordon’s winless streak for a moment… Sadler has not even had a top-5 run since the Daytona 500 in 2009.

Sadler’s best year came in 2004 when he managed to make the Chase aided mainly by 35 of 36 races he finished and two victories. Since then it’s been a painful drop in results, standings and coverage. So the news that Robbie Loomis has not ruled Sadler out of RPM’s plans for 2011 raises an interesting question. Do the guys at RPM think Sadler has something left in him or are there no other interested parties in driving for them in 2011?

Kasey Kahne is leaving the team at seasons end, and considering that AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard are both already signed by the organization you have to turn your head a bit.With Kevin Harvick staying put at RCR and David Reutiman returning to MWR there isn’t much to scour over. The best drivers in the Nationwide Series are all Sprint Cup regulars and the lone exception in Justin Allgaier is signed by Penske Racing.

So exactly who Loomis is talking about when he says that Sadler is one of three to four drivers the team is looking at remains to be seen. I suppose you could throw out Steve Wallace as one name but that could be a stretch. So could that of David Ragan who had been rumored to possibility move to RPM if Mark Martin was to leave Hendrick Racing prior to 2012. Martin and company shot down the rumor he was heading to Team Red Bull and insisted he would return to the #5 car next year.

One thing is for certain leaving Sadler in the #19 car does nothing for either side. It keeps both sides where they are. Nothing has clicked so far so it’s hard to think too much would change even when you reunite Sadler and former crew chief Todd Parrott. Though likely that RPM and company will see how the paring of those two play out for the remainder of the year before making any concrete decisions.

The biggest thing working against the #19 car is there isn’t many options on the other side.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The soap opera of where LeBron James will play this upcoming year finally ended last night. Fittingly it was a one hour special on ESPN.

Yes. LeBron is going to Miami and frankly Cleveland (a city that never really stopped sucking when he was there) is pouring out in even more misery.

Fans are irate in Cleveland burning anything associated with their former star despite his pleas to the area that Akron will always be his home.

In fairness James never choose Cleveland. They choose him. They tanked a full season in order to draft him and despite all the talk the countdown to his exit from the city started the moment he put pen to paper on that first NBA contract.

Fans in other cities are equally angry. In Chicago, New York and New Jersey they are all saying they will never think of this guy the same. That they had lost all respect for James by “taking an easy way out to get an NBA title in Miami.”

Everyone is allowed to say what they want but here’s a few of my thoughts.

It’s LeBrons decision. Let the man decide where he will play. Maybe everyone should complain when the Yankees and Red Sox sign all the top talent free agents in baseball?

The truth is had the man known as King James joined any of those cities they would be just as stoked as the fans in Miami. Even on the best of teams championships are no guarantee. It’s not as if the rest of the NBA will stop playing because they can’t beat the three headed monster of Wade, James and Chris Bosh.

Then you have to wonder. Just how awesome will that Miami team be? For starters ESPN has them at 66 wins this year in their projections. How many can they really win? and what about championships… how many will they tally? This team has chances to be the best ever with this lineup.

Also I have to admit I was hoping LeBron would go to Miami. And I’m not even a Heat fan. I don’t even watch NBA. I just wanted everyone to get pissed off and bent out of shape just so you can watch them all worship him again in a few months when he scores 40 points in a game, wins a title and has sex with 88 women and a dancing banana all at the same time.

Yes LeBron is in Miami. Now shut up.

Popularity: 12% [?]

I hope everyone took my advise and stayed away from Jamie McMurray last week. Didn’t I tell you those RCR cars were going to be tough?

I can’t help but think that Kevin Harvick could win back to back races. After all he has won 2 times at Chicagoland in 9 starts and has finished in the top-10 on 6 other occasions.

Of course Harvick isn’t the only Chevy driver to watch. Tony Stewart also has 2 wins and 7 top-10’s in 9 starts and his teammate Ryan Newman has a win of his own and five top-10’s in 8 starts.

Then again there’s still Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt to think about, both of which have wins at the track. Gordon had yet another nice finish last Saturday night at Daytona and the role that Earnhardt Jr is on is unmatched considering he’s finished three of the last four events in the top 10 and finished 11th in the other.

Then there is car 48. Can you believe Jimmie Johnson has never won at Chicagoland? He has finished in the top-10 in 7 of his 8 starts there so you can’t help but sense a win is coming.

Kyle Busch remains a solid bet as does his brother Kurt. Considering his recent luck Kyle may be flying a little under the radar right now.

I’m on the fence about Denny Hamlin. While he has just one top-10 finished to his credit it did come last year and if you take out his 40th place finish in 2008 then he’s averaging a 12th place finish at the event. Only 6 active drivers (and Brian Vickers) rank higher then him and one of this is Marcos Ambrose who made his first start at the track last year.

Martin Truex has made four starts at the track, but if you take out his engine failure from 2007 (a race he led 12 laps and started second) then he had an average of 13.6 finishing spot.

With the exception of Matt Kenseth there hasn’t been much success out of the Ford camp in Joliet. And considering the way he’s ran of late it’s best to just steer clear of anything with a blue oval. Carl Edwards has never been any good, even in the races he’s finished, and Greg Biffle will get you nothing more then a 15th-20th place finish.

If you are looking for lighting in a bottle maybe Jeff Burton is the best bet. While he’s been hit or miss the races he’s actually stayed out of trouble by my count five out of nine has resulted an average of 10.4 on the finish. Of course he’s also had his share of misfortunes at the track. Considering how well Burton has ran of late you have to think that he will get the Caterpillar Chevy in victory lane at some point this year.

Needless to say Mark Martin is not a good idea this weekend. Despite a win and 4 top-10’s to his credit he’s in a bad slump right now. He’s finished 20th or worse in 3 of the last 5 races and his best finish during that time is actually a 14th at Sonoma.

Anyone not mentioned above is to be stayed away from. Yes I am talking about Kasey Kahne as well.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Kevin Harvick picked up his second win of the season as he crossed the line ahead of a battered and broken field Saturday night at Daytona. Harvick won his second restrictor plate race of the year and may have thrown himself in conversation for this years championship.

While Harvick crossed the line first he wasn’t the only car out of the Richard Childress Racing camp that was running up front. Jeff Burton piloted the #31 Caterpillar Chevy to fifth even after making contact with Kurt Busch towards the end of the event and Clint Bowyer took the final restart in second before being shuffled back to a seventeenth place finish.

Harvick led the most laps and with the win may have cemented himself as the winner of the first half of NASCAR’s season thanks in part to the misfortunes of Jimmie Johnson (31st)  and Denny Hamlin. (24th)

Popularity: 5% [?]

That Dale Earnhardt Jr would be racing the #3 Wrangler car in the Nationwide Series has been a talked about story for months. I mean it seems probably because it has been talked about since April.

Yea… Anyway everyone has their opinions and so do some NASCAR drivers. I found a quote from Matt Kenseth during the Q&A session for the Coke Zero 400 to be a bit numerous.

DO YOU HAVE ANY MEMORIES OF THE BLUE No. 3 CAR HERE? “I haven’t seen it yet, to be honest with you. I haven’t seen it yet or watched any of that. I guess I heard about it and saw the car sitting someone in a picture or something, but I think it’s pretty cool. I’m sure they’ll sell a lot of diecasts and t-shirts. I think it’s cool that he’s driving the 3. I think everybody thought someday he was gonna go drive the 3 again and, really, to be honest, it makes me remember more about running the Busch Series with Dale Jr., and always ran the 3 car and racing against each other for championships. We both started the same year and moved up to Cup together the same year, so that really brings up more of those memories, to be honest, than anything. It just reminds me of how much fun we had racing for those couple of years in the Busch Series, now the Nationwide Series.”

For those wanting to read the full transcript you can check it out here. http://www.catchfence.com/2010/sprintcup/07/01/2010-nscs-coke-zero-400-q-a-with-ford-racing-driver-matt-kenseth/

Popularity: 12% [?]

Dale Earnhardt Jr may only have 5 top-10’s on the year but two of them have come in the last three races. With a seventh place at Michigan, an eleventh at Infineon and a solid eighth at New Hampshire the driver of car #88 is putting himself in position to make the chase.

Let us not forget Earnhardt Jr also finished second in February’s running of the Daytona 500 and has 2 career wins at the track in addition to 12 top-10’s in 21 career starts.

In terms of confidence entering Saturday nights event that of car 88 has to rank at the top. Perhaps only Jimmie Johnson may be higher and even he doesn’t have the career numbers that Earnhardt Jr has at Daytona.

If there’s one thing working against Earnhardt Jr it’s the practice results. The results at practice may not have been what team Hendrick was hoping for with Earnhardt Jr ranking 30th and 29th. But at Daytona it’s often not how well you are getting around the track but who you are getting around it with.

Consider that Robby Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, David Ragan and Paul Menard were all in the top-10 during second practice and you can often see why those results are disregarded for a Daytona weekend.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Yesterday multiple outlets regurgitated a report from Dave Moody that said Robbie Reiser is likely to return as the crew chief for Matt Kenseth’s #17 next year. The story itself isn’t new as it’s been rumored and hoped for by Ford fans that Reiser would return after the removal of Drew Blickensderfer following Daytona.

Todd Parrott took over and after some early success, based mainly on pit strategy, the results began to taper off and team owner Jack Roush replaced him with Jimmy Fennig. That Fennig wasn’t named crew chief speaks enough about the move that anyone can tell a reuniting of Kenseth and Reiser is inevitable.

Below are some of the quotes that will keep people talking for the coming weeks.

“Robbie wants to come back,” said one source on condition of anonymity, “but he’s doing such a good job as GM that Jack can’t justify making a move right now. Next season, expect to see Reiser back on the pit box, with Robbie Loomis succeeding him as General Manager.”

Even Kenseth has weighed in on the situation and considering the driver had asked for Reiser to return following Blickensderfer’s departure it’s not much of a surprise.

“He probably would have filled in for the rest of the year (and tried) to do both, but there just are not enough hours in a day.”

Kenseth and Reiser will be back together in 2011. It’s a no-brainer as far as decisions go at Roush-Fenway.

The reasons are simple. The most obvious is that the two had success while together winning 16 races and the 2003 Championship. The two never asked to be separated and the decision was not results related but more of a hope by Jack Roush that by putting Reiser in a GM role that he could have even more success across the organization.

Equally as important is that both Reiser and Kenseth, who has a large amount of pull around Roush-Fenway Racing, want to be joined together again.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Picking drivers at Daytona and Talladega may not be the easiest thing to do but there are a handful of guys who have a knack for finding their way to the front by the end of these events. Daytona is different from most tracks because you don’t have any guys who are always consistent mainly because of  “the big one”.

So to this you must often go with wins at the track, top-10’s, and how their car ran in the last race to gauge how they will finish on any given weekend. Before we go any further let’s just be honest picking against Jimmie Johnson is just plain ole’ stupid right now even if he’s only got 1 win in 17 starts. Now I will continue to break down the rest of the field.

As with most tracks the guys with the most wins rank near or at the top of every category. Oddly enough Clint Bowyer and David Ragan rank as the two best active drivers in terms of average finish. Still that’s not enough to make me pick Ragan but Bowyer is a strong pick. In 9 starts the driver of car #33 has finished in the top-10 a total of six times.

Jamie McMurray has won the last two restrictor plate races and has two wins at Daytona which makes him hard to pick against. However aside from McMurray’s two Daytona wins he’s managed simply 1 top-5 and 2 top-10’s in his other 13 starts. His teammate Juan Pablo Montoya has finished in the top-10 in his last two starts at the track as well.

Kurt Busch is going to win a restrictor plate race one day, with 9 top-5’s in 19 starts there may be no one more consistent at this track.

Jeff Gordon is the winnigest driver at Daytona with 6 wins in 35 starts. Tony Stewart has three wins, McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr each ahve two. Earnhardt’s last win at Daytona came back in 2004 but placed second in February’s race.

Kevin Harvick looked very strong in the first race at Daytona so he’s another one to watch, for that matter so did his teammate Jeff Burton making RCR perhaps the organization to watch this weekend.

As for Ford Matt Kenseth was last year’s Daytona 500 winner, and Greg Biffle came home third in this years running making them solid bets this weekend. Though while Kenseth has 10 top 10’s in 21 starts, Biffle has just 4 in 15 so if you have to choose between the two it’s Kenseth.

I never have good feelings about the next name considering he’s an after thought at just about every other track these days but Elliott Sadler has finished in the top-10 in 5 of his last 9 starts at Daytona including top-10’s in both races last year.

Denny Hamlin is tough to pick this week because he has just a single top-10 in 9 starts at Daytona and aside from that third place finish last July has managed no better then 17th in any of his other starts.

Mark Martin has started 50 races at Daytona and hasn’t won any of them. He’s finished in the top-5 just 9 times and in the top-10 a dismal 17 times. Couple all that with his recent performances and he’s any easy stay clear of driver.

With it being Daytona you can’t be too right or two wrong. One incident can make or break your day and it’s not always the car under a driver that determines his finish, more often then not it’s the cars around him that does.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Despite the up talk that Ford’s teams said they had figured out their problems during the Michigan race weekend the results at New Hampshire aren’t exactly the same story.

At Infineon it wasn’t so much about what was under the hood as who was in the car. Kasey Kahne who won last year at Infineon came home third in that race and Greg Biffle managed a seventh.

Those numbers could be thrown out. We were going back to ovals this past weekend and the names of Edwards and Kenseth figured to join them. Well none of that quite worked out. Kasey Kahne who was running one of the two FR-9 engines in the event saw his day go up in smoke after leading a good portion early and and the duo of Kenseth and Edwards found themselves fighting amongst the lapped cars rather early.

Maybe no one should be surprised that A.J. Allmendinger was the highest finishing Ford in 10th. Equally depressing for fans of the blue oval was that the next Ford’s in line were Greg Biffle (16th) and Matt Kenseth (17th).

Normally Ford and Daytona aren’t exactly the best mixture but considering Biffle (3rd), Kenseth (8th), and Edwards (9th) all scored top-10’s in February’s race maybe it’s welcomed medicine.

Since Kenseth’s race shortened winning of the Daytona 500 last year there has been only one trip to victory lane for the automaker. That happened to be the following week at California.

Popularity: 10% [?]