NASCAR Continues its Schizophrenic Tendencies

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

That was the message delivered by NASCAR today in announcing the penalties for Saturday night's St. Louie Brawl at Gateway International Speedway.

Kudos must first be given to NASCAR for at least attempting to right a wrong. Edwards will receive no real points advantage for his blatant wrecking of Keselowski, a small but helpful restitution for Keselowski in his bid for his first NASCAR championship.

Many, this writer included, may think that the penalties given were far too light given the circumstances, but credit must be given for NASCAR to at least begin to put some type of cap on the "Have at it Boys'" mantra for the 2010 season.

What followed next, however, is as perplexing as any ruling, yet given by the governing body.

Can someone please explain to me what Brad Keselowski did to deserve probation? He handled the incident on Saturday night with the utmost class you would expect from a veteran racer, no less from a driver in his fourth year of full time competition.

Earlier this year during the All-Star race, Kyle Busch threatened to kill Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin for a racing incident on track. While the claim was made in the heat of the moment, who knows how Busch, or other drivers, would handle the situation Keselowski was presented with. Yet, Keselowski took the high road and did not succumb to the rage that was surely boiling inside of him.

Sure, you could argue that this is a preventative measure in order to ensure no more retaliation will occur on the track. This logic is somewhat flawed, as Keselowski is the one with the most to lose by retaliating as he more or less has the Nationwide Series championship in hand.

And despite the actions of Edwards, Keselowski has done little, if anything, the fan the fires that is Edward's disdain. The even more perplexing part is that in all three of their run-ins, Keselowski was not did not do anything out of the ordinary as a racer.

Guilty by association is almost what this amounts to.

So, while NASCAR took a step forward to ensure incidents like what occurred on Saturday night do not happen again, it took a step backwards by penalizing the victim of this entire endeavor.

How's that for fair?