Edwards admits crash was deliberate

The Roush Fenway racer had an incident with the Penske driver early in the race following a restart, one that he admitted to be his fault, despite believing otherwise before looking at video evidence.

Then with a couple of laps remaining into the race, Edwards tapped Keselowski into a spin, which resulted in a violent crash as the #12 Dodge got airborne and crashed against the barrier while turned upside down. Keselowski was unhurt in the incident despite the magnitude of the impact.

The feud between the two was triggered last year in the spring race at Talladega, where Edwards' car almost ended up in the grandstand, as he and Keselowski made contact while battling for victory on the final lap.

On Sunday and having met with NASCAR officials at the track after being parked, Edwards later wrote on his Facebook page explaining the reasoning behind his on-track antics at Atlanta.

"My options," he wrote. "Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyone's safety or hard work, should I: A) Keep letting him wreck me? B) Confront him after the race? C) Wait till Bristol and collect other cars? or D) Take care of it now?

"I want to be clear that I was surprised at his flight and very relieved when he walked away. Every person has to decide what code they want to live by and hopefully this explains mine."

Edwards may face further penalties for his actions, but NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton, who heard from Edwards on Sunday following the incident, said a decision has yet to be made on the matter.

"It looked like it could have been a payback from the #99 [Edwards] on the #12 [Keselowski]," said Pemberton. "We talked with Carl after the race and we have an understanding about it and we will talk internally again as a group Monday or Tuesday of this week and make any decision on if there will be any other actions that we will take."

Last year in the season finale at Homestead an on-track feud between Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya took place, although with a far less violent result. Montoya was penalised with two laps after he got payback for Stewart getting into him earlier, but no further action was taken against the Ganassi driver.