NASCAR president Mike Helton on Tuesday announced Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards had been placed on probation for the next three Sprint Cup races as a result of Edwards intentionally wrecking Brad Keselowski this past Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Edwards' probation covers the March 21 and March 28 races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, both half-mile short tracks, and the April 10 event at Phoenix International Raceway, a 1-mile oval that NASCAR still considers a short track.

NASCAR's response

NASCAR president Mike Helton talks about the punishment for Carl Edwards and his concern about Brad Keselowski's car getting airborne at Atlanta.

• NASCAR announcement
• No. 12 car goes airborne
• First incident at Atlanta
• Race Chatter: Edwards

Helton, who was in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday and who typically attends NASCAR's weekly competition meetings, said the ruling clarified NASCAR's stand on drivers self-policing themselves.

"We're promoting typical NASCAR driving, side-by-side racing with our type of race cars; and that's what we talked about back in January," Helton said "A lot of that came from the conversation of NASCAR taking stock of its rules and regulations to back away from the grip we may have on drivers that caused the driver to pull up to a car and say, 'Well, I think I can get around him, but maybe I can't. And if I hit him, I don't want to pay the price for what that costs.'

"So we were telling the drivers and telling the public that we told the drivers that we were going to back off on that grip we had. But there is a line you can cross. When you cross that line in our opinion, we're going to get involved with you."

Helton confirmed with his opening statement that Edwards had crossed that imaginary line.

"We made it very clear to [Edwards] that these actions were not acceptable and did go beyond what we said back in January, about putting the driving back in the hands of the drivers," Helton said. "I believe [Edwards] understands our position at this point."

Helton said the decision came "after meeting and discussing the events Sunday evening, all day Monday and [Tuesday] morning." Helton added that an additional meeting would be arranged between NASCAR officials, team owners Jack Roush and Roger Penske and the two drivers.

"We want to get this matter resolved between the two drivers, clean the slate, if you will, so that they can both go back to some hard, competitive, side-by-side racing that is NASCAR," Helton said. "We're working on that schedule, but certainly it wouldn't be later than the Saturday or Sunday in Bristol.

"It's more of an open dialogue among the two drivers to discuss the issues they might have with each other and reach a resolve that way. It's not as much as us lecturing or mentoring at this point as it is for the two drivers to talk it out and the owners listening to the conversation and their input's important.

"There has obviously been an evolution of a relationship between these two drivers, and that's why in the conversation with Roger Penske, he asked ... his biggest concern was being sure that this was all said and done and it was over with.

"But if there's a rivalry that goes on while racing, then they need to figure out how to manage that before we get more involved in it."

Driver reactions

“

I didn't think any suspension or anything like that ... was worthy of happening.

”

-- ELLIOTT SADLER

“

There's a too far in everything, and that was too far. Bottom line, simple as that.

”

-- CLINT BOWYER

NASCAR's decision seems to reinforce the loosely defined "have at it, boys, and have a good time" philosophy of more aggressive, self-policed racing.

Helton's participation in a teleconference was quickly scheduled and announced Tuesday morning less than 90 minutes in advance following the aftermath of the vicious accident in the late stages of Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.

With two laps remaining of the scheduled 325-lap event on the high-speed 1.5-mile track -- where two days before Dale Earnhardt Jr. had clocked the fastest qualifying lap ever recorded by NASCAR's new car, 192.761 mph -- Keselowski's Dodge went airborne and flipped into the frontstretch fence following contact from Edwards' Ford.

FOX Sports' TV replays showed Edwards' white-gloved hands moving his steering wheel to the right, turning his car into the back of Keselowski's car, which caused the red No. 12 to spin backwards. The car immediately lifted into the air and turned over, striking the top of the fence, upside-down with the driver's-side corner of the windshield "A-post."

NASCAR immediately parked Edwards, who had made another lap of the race track after the contact. Upon getting the word on his in-car radio, Edwards drove the wrong way up pit road to turn into the Sprint Cup garage area to park at his hauler.

Keselowski was helped from his car and walked to an ambulance. After being examined in the track's infield care center, Keselowski emerged and promised that actions such as Edwards' would result in injuries to either another driver or to fans.

"To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that's not cool -- you could have killed someone in the grandstands," Keselowski said. "It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they're going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands.

"It's not cool to wreck someone intentionally at 195 mph."

After getting out of his car at the track, Edwards didn't deny spinning Keselowski but said flipping the younger driver's car wasn't his intent. Later Sunday evening, in an entry on his Facebook page, Edwards said "his code" dictated that he take action immediately.

Earlier in the race, Edwards and Keselowski's cars made contact when Edwards attempted to move his Roush Fenway Racing Ford from an upper lane to a lower lane already occupied by Keselowski's Penske Racing Dodge.

The contact caused Edwards' car to skitter up the track, where it hit Joey Logano's Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, causing both Edwards' and Logano's cars to hit the wall. Edwards spent more than 150 laps in the garage while his crew made repairs.

Edwards came back on the track in 41st and could have made up three positions -- and nine championship points -- by running to the end of the race. When he was parked, Edwards ended up 39th and lost the chance to overtake Joe Nemechek, who was already out of the race.

Helton said NASCAR felt parking Edwards, which it did solely based on wrecking the 12 at Atlanta, was the largest part of his penalty. After the race, Edwards met with officials in NASCAR's office trailer at the track.

Growing concern

Since Ryan Newman's flip at Talladega, cars going airborne are becoming more frequent.

• More

"I think first of all, I'll go back to the fact that we parked Carl as soon as the [Atlanta] incident occurred, for the balance of the event," Helton said. "You can look back at the incidents at Homestead [Denny Hamlin wrecking Keselowski, Tony Stewart wrecking Juan Montoya] where it was a one-lap penalty.

"So the immediate reaction [to Edwards' move] from NASCAR was parking the car for the balance of the event. That in its own can be a serious reaction from us, I think. The balance of it, I think, will still have to be sorted out among the drivers as to what their opinion or their interpretation of all of this is.

"But I do say there are two things here. It's a function of us wanting to do the right thing by the competitors on the race track from both sides. One, allow them to race; but the other side of it is to maintain law and order within a reasonable step."

Helton wouldn't speculate about how other NASCAR drivers might interpret the ruling.

"You'd have to ask the drivers what their opinions are after Sunday and seeing the 12 car get airborne in Atlanta," Helton said. "But in January, we were talking to the drivers directly and to the public about us backing away from the grip we might have on drivers and their driving style on the race track.

"Throughout our history, we've seen incidents on the track where they were obviously a simple racing accident, some that were obviously intentional [and] some that we couldn't tell the difference on and may not have been able to react to.

"But the clear message, I think, we sent in January was that we were willing to put more responsibility in the hands of the driver. But there is a line you can cross and we'll step in to maintain law and order when we think that line's crossed."

At Darlington Raceway, where three Sprint Cup and two Camping World Truck series drivers were participating in a Goodyear tire test Tuesday, Elliott Sadler said NASCAR's decision to only place Edwards on probation was consistent with the approach the sanctioning body took entering the season, which was to allow competitors more room to police themselves.

"You have to say this, NASCAR has struck to their guns to let the drivers talk it out and work it out," Sadler said. "The message I kind of got out of [Tuesday] was, if you get yourself in this kind of a bind, yes, we're going to intervene a little bit, but we're going to let you and the other driver and owner talk about it, because it's their race cars, and it's you driving the race car. That's the message [Helton] sent [Tuesday], and kind of what he said at the beginning of the year, too, that they were kind of going to put it back in our hands. He's staying true to that point."

Sadler, whose Richard Petty Motorsports team uses engines and chassis from Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing organization, added that he didn't think a suspension was deserved.

"I guess they're trying to intervene a little bit, but trying to stay out of it," he said. "I didn't think any suspension or anything like that was definitely going to happen, or was worthy of happening. They're going to leave it [the drivers'] hands, and we'll see where it goes from there."

Clint Bowyer said it wasn't his place to suggest whether a suspension was merited or not. But he clearly didn't approve of Edwards' actions. "There's a too far in everything," he said, "and that was too far. Bottom line, simple as that."

David Caraviello contributed to this report.

Related:
• NASCAR sends mixed message with decision
• Good guy Edwards makes bad situation worse
• History shows two drivers have a muddled past