BRISTOL, Tenn. -- It's 9:15 a.m. at Bristol Motor Speedway, and still cold enough that each breath expels a smoky plume. Nationwide cars are being pushed from their narrow garage area to the frontstretch pit road, in preparation for qualifying later in the morning. The public address announcer is already hard at work, rattling off announcements about an upcoming track walk and a contest to win a pace car for the few bundled-up diehards shivering in their grandstand seats.

“

I think the biggest thing coming out of that meeting is that now, I think, Brad and I understand one another a little better. I think we're going to be able to just go forward and go racing, and that's what this is all about.

”

-- CARL EDWARDS

The real action on this Saturday, though, isn't on the race track -- at least not yet. It's going on behind the opaque windows of the black and gold Sprint Cup hauler, where Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, and their respective car owners are meeting with NASCAR officials in an attempt to end the running feud that two weeks ago sent Keselowski's car airborne and landed Edwards on three week's probation. The whole situation has mushroomed into a national story, and its dénouement has begun to feel like some stock-car version of the summit at Yalta.

Which is why roughly 25 media members are milling around the outside of the hauler, holding cameras and voice recorders and notebooks in frozen fingers, watching the shadows on the other side of the mirrored sliding doors and waiting for the principles to emerge. The most-asked question this weekend at Bristol wasn't over who was going to win the Food City 500 on Sunday, but what time are Carl and Brad meeting with NASCAR on Saturday morning? The sanctioning body, understandably, was hesitant to provide an exact time, so reporters were left to guess -- something they do very well. Given that both drivers were taking part in a Nationwide qualifying session that started at 9:45 a.m., the consensus seemed to be about 9:15. Close. The major players arrived shortly after 9, and in media circles word traveled faster than a Jimmie Johnson pole run.

So by 9:30, there was a veritable horde outside, one swollen in size by the presence of photographers, a few NASCAR officials, and a number of onlookers curious about what was going on. The two drivers were in there, presumably hashing out their differences with NASCAR president Mike Helton, VP for competition Robin Pemberton, and Cup Series director John Darby. Each time the mirrored doors slid opened, dozens of heads popped upright, bodies tensed in anticipation of the rush -- but it was just an official or a public-relations representative. False alarm. (Continued)