Kudos to Carl Edwards for putting things in perspective.
In explaining the striking absence of caution flags this season, several drivers last week pointed to the current points system and the necessity of making the Chase as a possible reason for more conservative racing.
The undercurrent, however, seems to be that if drivers aren’t wrecking, they aren’t racing as intensely as they could.
Edwards acknowledges that drivers may be racing more intelligently, but that’s doesn’t mean they’re not trying to win.
“There is not a point system that NASCAR can devise that is going to make us go out there and wreck race cars, you guys,” Edwards said Friday at Dover International Speedway. “There is nothing positive out of wrecking a race car. It hurts your chances at winning the race, which is all of our number one goals when we come to the race track.
“I want to be very clear; no driver is going out there and putting the focus on not wrecking. We go out there and race. I don’t know if you guys have ridden in these race cars, but we are driving the hell out of these race cars. We also are learning and understanding that you can’t really plan on winning a race or championship if you are wrecking.
“No matter what point system they come up with, I can’t think of one where everybody is going to go out there and go, ‘Hell, let’s just go out there and wreck.’ That just won’t happen. We can talk about it all we want but we are all going to race to race, not to wreck.”
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