LAST WEEKEND AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

- Kurt Busch 'unwinds' (his reverse victory lap celebration) at Atlanta for the second year in a row. The Penske driver and his new crew chief, Steve Addington, won the fourth Cup race of the season. Kurt ran well in the first three races, but he was not able to 'finish the deal' for a variety of reasons. This time, Kurt had to overcome two Green-White-Checkered restarts to make it to Victory Circle. Kasey Kahne led the most laps for the race, but he fell to 4th on the final restart. Montoya finished 3rd after spinning his tires on the last restart when Kurt restarted the race about 40 feet sooner than he had been doing on restarts (the leader on a restart can restart the race at any point between a line on the wall and the start/finish line, and the second place car must not cross the line before him or he will be black flagged).

On the first attempt at a Green-White-Checkered finish, there was an eight car pile-up going into Turn 3; most of those cars were in the top 10 when the crash began.

- With six laps to go, Carl Edwards created the need for the 'overtime' when he deliberately crashed Brad Keselowski. Brad forced Carl up on the first turn banking and into Joey Logano. Carl's car ended up in the garage on lap 41 of the race and stayed there for repairs for many laps. Carl and Brad have been involved in controversy in Cup and Nationwide races for the past three years, and they have rubbed each other (on purpose) several times on the track. This time, Edwards tried to slide into the side of Brad the lap before but missed. He clearly turned right and into Brad's rear quarter panel at the Tri-oval, which caused Brad's car to flip, hit the track and wall simultaneously, before turning back over on its wheels. NASCAR promptly 'parked' Carl and had him report to the NASCAR office. On his way, Carl responded to a reporter's question of his intent. He said, "Brad knows the deal between us; the scary part was that he got airborne, which was not at all what I expected. I'm glad he is OK; maybe he and I will not have any more incidents." Carl admitted that he had intentionally wrecked Brad. When he was told that he was being parked for the rest of the race, he was on the front straight-away and turned onto the Legend's track at Turn 1 which took him onto Pit Road. This made him enter Pit Road going the wrong way, and he continued until he got to the garage. Pit Road was not open at the time, and no cars were coming down the lane; however, it was a very dangerous situation.

What will NASCAR do? We should find out today if Carl will receive fines and penalties; but, history says this could be BIG, or basically overlooked! 'Pay backs' have been a part of NASCAR from the beginning. As a chaplain in the 90's, several times I talked to drivers about not retaliating (some worked, one definitely did not). At that time, it was common to know before you arrived at Martinsville, Bristol, Phoenix or Loudon who was 'out to get' someone else; and, it generally happened as predicted at one of these four 'slower' tracks. If there is a fine (and there was not one after Homestead last November when Denny Hamlin admitted he intentionally wrecked Brad also), one unique requirement would be interesting. What if NASCAR required Carl to pay Roger Penske for the replacement of Brad's car, or maybe Roger should require Brad to pay for it? In addition, there was the driving the wrong way on Pit Road. Just last year, NASCAR gave a crewman a four-week suspension for going into the infield to get a tire, which required them to throw a caution and influence the outcome of the race. There was also the incident where Kevin Harvick was suspended for a Cup race because he parked his truck in front of the NASCAR office after he was black flagged in a Martinsville race.

In the off-season, NASCAR announced that they were going to let the drivers 'police themselves.' This situation will definitely challenge their thinking; as this could have involved injury to fans if Brad's car had hit the fence, which it almost did. In the end, it may just be the driving the wrong way on pit road that is 'policed,' as that act was not toward another driver, but to NASCAR itself.

- Richard Petty Motorsports placed cars in the 4th, 5th and 6th finishing positions. This is the third of four races this season that the team has had at least two teams running well in the race.

- Tires were a problem for at least nine teams. Goodyear suggested it was caused by either debris on the track that cut two of the tires that were on wrecked cars, or that teams had been too aggressive on 'camber' in the front tires, causing excessive wear and/or heat. During the first three races of the season, Goodyear was praised for changing the tires. They were given credit for the improved racing on the track. In NASCAR, there is always 'someone else' that can be blamed for just about every failure. That's "just racing."

- Jimmie Johnson ONLY finished 12th. but once again two caution flags happened at 'just the right time' to give him time to make changes and avoid going a lap down.

PIT NOTE

Racing is a sport; it is entertainment, and controversy 'sells.' Having 'good guys' and 'bad guys' sells tickets and t-shirts. It captures TV time and provides lively discussions on radio shows. The 'heroes' of the sport also teach values to youth by how they handle tough, emotional situations. Their fans live vicariously through them; and sadly, they find more excitement in defending or condemning a driver for a bad action on one day of the week (Sunday), than they do about anything in their lives on the other six days of the week.

NASCAR may come down hard and suspend Carl, or they may not. Denny Hamlin admitted he retaliated in Homestead, and he did miss the next race (Daytona). The only difference here is a car that flipped and could have hurt a fan.

So, how do we see the Gospel of Jesus in any of this? 1) God is not like NASCAR! Whatever decision NASCAR makes, as far as punishment, will possibly be inconsistent with something they did in the past in a similar situation. God is always just, fair and consistent in his judgment of sin. Jesus became sin for us and experienced the wrath of God on sin. 2) There is no defending ourselves by comparing ourselves with what someone else did to us. There is no such thing as 'paybacks' in our relationship with God. He is Love, and He loves us. He never seeks to hurt us or 'get back at us.' He is forgiving, and he forgets. We will only experience punishment for our sins, if we reject the gift of God, which is life eternal and abundant. 3) God will not react emotionally to something we do against Him, and act out of His character in a moment of 'losing it.' He will not get more and more upset as he waits for his car to be repaired, and then return to just 'get us.' He will come to us, speak clearly to us about what we did wrong, and then press us to confess our sin and repent of doing it again. 4) God will never forsake us. Regardless of how gross our sin, how embarrassing our actions, or how immature we act, God invites us to live in His Grace.

There are more lessons, but the foundation of them all is that, to varying degrees; we all act like Carl and Brad because we have a sinful, human nature. God seeks our rebirth as a 'new man,' whose life is the life of Jesus. Finally, Jesus, the God-man who turned the other cheek, who gave more than asked when others asked unfair things of him, is the only Hero that can be trusted and followed.

The Good News is that we no longer 'fight' our own battles! We simply preach the gospel to ourselves each day, and God's Spirit will direct our path away from evil and revenge into Joy, Peace, and Love.