Column: Around and around and around they go

            BRISTOL, Tenn. – Among the many treasures of Bristol Motor Speedway is that it always gives writers something about which to write and fans something about which to talk.

            OK, so it may have been a bit extreme on Friday.

            Lord, have mercy. No telling what’s going to transpire when the track actually starts having races. Qualifying and practice produced the many pearls of wisdom so far.

            Let’s see. Kevin Harvick thinks Carl Edwards is a fake. Edwards thinks Harvick isn’t a nice person. Tony Stewart can’t find a question that isn’t stupid. Norm Crosby, er, Larry McReynolds (he’s a TV guy now) thinks picking up “a 10^th (of a second) at Bristol is like climbing a vertical mountain.”

            He’s right, too. Horizontal mountains are much easier.

            Mark Martin admits he’s “not Dr. Phil,” this after being asked about Edwards. He also thinks Edwards is “a stand-up guy and a fine young man,” by the way, which is in marked contrast with … Harvick.

            Brad Keselowski – hey, wasn’t he the guy who got wrecked by Edwards at Atlanta? – thinks the fans are “the ultimate gauge of what’s right and wrong.” Keselowski and Edwards are about to have their “come-to-Jesus town meeting” (two favorite NASCAR terms) in the dreaded NASCAR transporter. They will emerge from this meeting to a throng of media, which will dutifully listen as they say almost nothing because this is what NASCAR wants them to say.

            The media will have to be there … just in case.

            Perspective, please. In this atmosphere, it’s asking a lot.

            Mark Martin’s 51, and he needs every year to put a recent event, the “Atlanta Incident,” in perspective.

“That accident had a result that was unintended and big,” says Martin. “You have to keep that in mind. When they (NASCAR) said, ‘have at it, boys,’ I thought they meant to take care of it when you step out of the car on pit road.”

On the contrary, Mark, but thanks for appearing on “Hollywood Squares,” and please accept the nice parting gifts with our compliments.

“Since that accident turned out to be something of unintended consequences, it ended up being a bigger deal than it might have been,” Martin says.

This the age of everything being bigger than it might have been.

Neither NASCAR, nor the United States Supreme Court, nor the College of Cardinals, is going to straighten out the rift between Edwards and Keselowski. Edwards had one of those “OK, enough is enough” moments, after which he undoubtedly had one of those “missed it by that much” moments, followed by one of those “I did it and I’m going to own up it” moments (very rare these days), and Keselowski says he isn’t going to change a single, solitary thing.

Only Edwards and Keselowski can settle the dispute. It will either happen, and lessons will be learned, or it won’t, and the rivalry will diminish both drivers.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.