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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Carl Edwards will be all talk, no action on Kyle Busch payback

There has been a lot of talk this week about what Carl Edwards might do to Kyle Busch if the two get near to each other this weekend on track.

It seems that Carl is still upset about a bump from Kyle earlier this season that cost him a win, and let those feelings be known both last week at Bristol and this weekend at California -- hinting he would try to get some payback in the near future.
While there was no payback from Edwards at the end of last week’s Bristol race when they were battling for the win, Edwards said he was definitely considering it.

“It boils down to this. I had my shot to pass him and I couldn’t because I wasn’t fast enough. When things got going, his car was just faster. I couldn’t get back to him. If I could have got to him with one or two laps to go then maybe I could have made something happen. I know that is what all the fans wanted to see. Trust me, nobody wanted to see it more than me. I would have loved to be in that position. As it went, I wasn’t even in position to consider that.”

The incident bothering Edwards happened at Phoenix, and it’s all about lost points.

“The deal is I am just going to go race how I need to race. It is nothing personal. That deal at Phoenix cost me 28 points at least in my opinion. So, the least he can give up is one spot. I don’t know. I told him I owed him one and he asked for me to give it back to him at the All-Star race. You never know. Maybe that is how it will go. This is racing guys. You go to Bristol and are on a guys back bumper and you have a chance and you start thinking of all the little things and all the little reasons behind everything. Really it is fine. Hopefully him and I get to race a bunch this year and hopefully it is good clean racing. It might get exciting, you never know.”

For his part, Kyle Busch wasn’t too concerned with what Edwards is saying or doing. He’s just focusing on trying to win in Cup this week and get his second straight weekend sweep after his Saturday Nationwide win at California.

"If Carl wants to continue saying that he still owes me one, whatever, I don't care. I'm racing my race and how I should be racing, and
racing all of my competitors and not worrying about all of that stuff. To me, we're here at California and I'm ready to move
and see if we can't win out here,” Busch said.

Other drivers have hinted that talking about payback is cheap – and you should just do it if you want to do it. Edwards wasn’t concerned about those comments, though.

“Yeah, that is fine. People can say whatever they want. I am going to do what I have to do and say whatever I am going to say. That is me.”
What do I think? While Carl definitely has shown he’s not afraid to punt an opponent (you’ll recall Brad Keselowski in the air a couple years back), I’m gonna say that this little feud is all hype and won’t amount to anything.
I’m with the drivers who say shut up and do it, or don’t say anything at all. It might make for a good sound bite, but if Carl Edwards was going to do anything, it would have happened at Bristol. That’s a place made for contact, and they were close enough in the race that Carl could’ve pushed the issue if he really wanted to. He didn’t, and maybe afterward he wished he had, but the more he talks about it, the less likely something is to happen.

It reminds me of the bad guys in the James Bond movies who talk endlessly about all the things they’re going to do to Bond, and by the time they try to do anything, Bond has already escaped. A smart villain would just stay silent, pull out his gun (or lower him in the lava pit, etc.) and take out Bond without even talking.
So by my estimation, Busch doesn’t have much to worry about … at least until Edwards stops talking about it.

No tweeting for Dale Jr.
Many NASCAR drivers – including Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kenny Wallace and others – are really into Twitter. But don’t count on Dale Earnhardt Jr. joining their ranks anytime soon. Why? … well, Jr. just doesn’t want to take on any more jobs.

"I used to have a Myspace.com page and I used to have a Facebook page, (but) I don't anymore because it was just too much responsibility," he said. "I felt like you had to plug in and be involved with it so much and I thought personally I don't need to do it. I understand we use it on the business side of it and how it works for JRM, but personally, you know, it would be fun for about a month and then I would start to feel like it was a job where people expected me to do it."

To each his own, but I say Jr. is missing out, and I’m glad other drivers take the time to interact with fans.

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