Photos by Associated Press

Brad Keselowski (12) flips after being nudged by Carl Edwards (top) during the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Martin Turex Jr. (center) crashes with Mark Martin (5) and Jamie McMurray (1) during the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., on Sunday. Truex finished 27th, McMurray 29th and Martin 33rd in the fourth race of the Sprint Cup season.

HAMPTON, Ga. -- "Have at it boys'' might have gone too far Sunday.

NASCAR's attempt to give drivers more leeway in settling their issues on and off the track now puts series officials in a challenging position.

What to do with Carl Edwards after he wrecked Brad Keselowski and sent Keselowski's car upside down at Atlanta Motor Speedway?

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, said series officials will discuss the matter this week before deciding if any additional penalties are needed. Series officials parked Edwards for his retaliatory act and met with him after the race.

After walking out of the infield care center, an uninjured Keselowski encouraged NASCAR do more because of the crash's severity.

"Parking a guy for this race is not enough,'' he said.

Keselowski suggested that Edwards should be suspended "at least one race. He could have killed somebody in the grandstands, wrecking somebody intentionally.''

NASCAR last suspended or "parked'' a Cup, Nationwide or truck series driver a race for an on-track incident in 2007.

Said Edwards after Sunday's incident: "Brad knows the deal between him and I. The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. At the end of the day, we're out here to race and people have to have respect for one another, and I have a lot of respect for people's safety. I wish it wouldn't have gone like it did, but I'm glad he's OK and we'll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won't get in anymore incidents together.''

Edwards declined further comment after meeting with series officials.

What could be a concern for NASCAR is that this is a dangerous trend developing. It's one thing to have drivers retaliate at the short tracks where speeds are slower and the cars are so close together, but drivers were running laps near 190 mph Sunday. Typically, drivers exacted their revenge in less direct ways on the 1.5-mile tracks knowing that the chances of an injury were greater with a wreck.

That changed last year as NASCAR began to ease the reins on driver behavior on the track.

A week after vowing he would do so for previous incidents, Denny Hamlin wrecked Keselowski in the Nationwide race at Homestead, a 1.5-mile track similar to Atlanta. The next day, Juan Pablo Montoya wrecked Tony Stewart for an earlier incident on the same track. NASCAR issued penalties during the race to both but did nothing further.

"If they allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstand,'' Keselowski said.

Now comes this incident Sunday where Edwards returned to the track after spending more than 100 laps in the garage for repairs and then wrecked Keselowski.

"I could see he was trying to,'' Keselowski said of Edwards attempting to wreck him. "I was trying to cut him some slack and I let him go at one point because I knew he was angry.''

What Edwards was upset about was an incident between the two earlier in the race. Edwards was clipped by Keselowski when Edwards attempted to move down the track. The contact sent Edwards into Joey Logano and the wall.

"He cut down on me on a restart and I lifted and I couldn't lift fast enough for him,'' Keselowski said. "I lifted for him to let him in but I was there. I don't know what more you could do. I tried to cut him a break but it was too late.''

This isn't the first time these two have tangled. They got together on the last lap at Talladega last year with Edwards trying to hold of Keselowski's charge. Edwards blocked and they hit, sending Edwards' car into the catchfence. Keselowski won that race.

With three incidents between Edwards and Keselowski in the last year -- leading to cars going airborne twice -- instead of telling them to have at it, maybe NASCAR will tell at least one of them to calm down.