Brad Keselowski goes for a wild ride at Atlanta earlier this year. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“That was the closest we ever came,” Eury said. “Everybody thought we were going to be the ones to beat. We had everything going our way. It seemed like we had the luck and everything else, and that one deal killed it all.”

Eury said that if the team had made it through Atlanta, he would have played a different strategy in the remaining races, especially in the season finale at Homestead, where they finished 23rd after winning at Phoenix and finishing 11th at Darlington.

“We probably would have done things a little different at Homestead.” Eury said. “Things would be a lot different for sure.”

Earnhardt said his feelings about the incident have changed over time, but they were raw for a while.

“I was upset at Carl. He was young, just getting started in the Cup Series,” he said. “But I’d done the same thing to Ryan Newman two times off of Turn 2.”

Newman also vividly recalled that day, but he pointed out that there’s not much that can be done about things once they happen.

“You think back to things you would have done different, but you don’t dwell on them,” he said.

I also talked to Edwards last year about that wreck.

“That was bad,” he said, the look on his face changing from all smiles before he heard the question to one of true regret once he heard it. “If I had that do over again, I would have let him ease right in and go on.

“But in my mind then, I was caught up in the moment, in the battle. I knew he was thinking, ‘This rookie will give me room.’

“I’m thinking, ‘I’m racing for my sponsor, for a job and all that stuff.’

“When it happened I didn’t realize…. I didn’t realize until about a year later how important those chances to win a championship are. I finished third in that race. If I had finished fourth I don’t think it would have mattered.

“Seeing the type of person [Earnhardt] is and learning more about how all this works, I wish I could have lifted, I wish I could go back and fix it.”

I wonder if Edwards and Keselowski, if asked the same kind questions five years from now, will have similar answers.

Rick Minter is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist who joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1991 covering motorsports as well as serving as a bureau chief. From 2000-2008 Minter focused on racing exclusively, traveling the NASCAR circuit as the paper’s motorsports writer.


Rick can be reached at rminter@racintoday.com