Edward’s: We’ll race like this until we kill somebody

UPDATE "Brad was pushing, he’s doing everything he can," Edwards said. "I saw him go high. I went high. He goes low right here and I didn’t realize he got that far, so I went low to block a little bit and he was already there, so I turned around backwards. At this point I’m thinking, ‘Boy, I wish this was made out of liquid gel material,’ and then I’m very fortunate we hit the wall in a way it didn’t crush my roll cage down on my neck because that would have been a lot worse.

"NASCAR just puts us in this box. Brad did a great job. Congrats to him on the win, but they put us in this box and we’ll race like this until we kill somebody and then they’ll change it, but I’m just glad nobody got hurt today. I’m glad the car didn’t go up in the grandstands and hurt somebody. "

Edwards said Keselowski, who earned his first career Sprint Cup win, was simply doing what he is "supposed to do."

"He’s assuming that I know he’s inside," Edwards said. "He was so quick that I didn’t know he was inside."

"We saw what happened to Regan Smith, you can’t go down below the yellow line or you lose the race, so he’s winning and I was doing everything I could to keep him from winning," Edwards said. "I’m glad I’m all right. This [running to the line], I didn’t know if it mattered if I went across the finish line, but I just wanted to finish the race."

"It was just a little bit scary because I saw the ground and then I couldn’t tell exactly which part of the car I hit the wall with and I was real worried I hit the roll cage and I had to wait a minute to make sure that there wasn’t something stuck in me somewhere or something," Edwards said. "That’s a little nerve-racking to hit the wall with something other than the side of the race car. That’s the first time I’ve flipped in a race car. That’s it, so we got that out of the way."

04/27/09 Unsung rookie Brad Keselowski pulled off one of the year's biggest upsets, in a dramatic, scary finish to the Talladega Aaron's 499 that ended when then-leader Carl Edwards crashed hard while blocking Kieslowski’s bid to pass on the inside – a move quite similar to what happened here the last lap last fall.

Last year Regan Smith was trying to pass Tony Stewart on the inside for the win, in the same section of the frontstretch trioval. But when Stewart moved down to block – just as Edwards did Sunday – Smith moved down to avoid hitting Stewart. Smith crossed the finish line then ahead of Stewart but NASCAR penalized Smith for going below the yellow line, a controversial call.

The Edwards-Keselowski finish here Sunday was a replay of that Smith-Stewart battle – and it showed exactly what would have happened to Stewart last year here if Smith had held his ground.

Edwards' car went flipping in the air, and fortunately the catch-fence caught his car and kept it from flying into the stands. The flip was too familiar to the Bobby Allison crash here in 1987 that led NASCAR to slow speeds by putting restrictor plates on cars.

Edwards and other drivers were clearly shaken by the crash, and angry. Edwards' car smashed down on Ryan Newman's roof and then caught fire.

"I'm fine," Edwards said after coming out of the infield hospital.

"I'm glad it didn't push the roll cage down on my neck…because that would have been bad. I was just glad there wasn't anything stuck in my body," Edwards said.

"We'll race like this until they kill somebody.

"I'm just glad the car didn't go up into the stands."

Edwards didn't blame Keselowski: "That's what Brad was supposed to do. He just made that move so quickly I didn't realize he was there.

"Brad was pushing, and he was going high and high, and I didn't know he was that low when I went to block him."

Newman: "We've seen that twice this weekend, with Carl and with Greg Biffle. Maybe we need to look at doing something about this. To keep these cars on the ground. Not just for the drivers but for the fans too.

"We call that particular rollbar the 'Earnhardt' bar for a reason – and it saved me today.

"Talladega is short for 'we know we're going to crash, we just don't know when.'" More at MikeMulhern.net