Associated Press

Carl Edwards (left) could be suspended or might just lose points for wrecking Brad Keselowski (right) last weekend. The frightening crash sent Keselowski's car flying toward the stands.

ATLANTA -- Carl Edwards posted a multiple-choice quiz on his Facebook page, listing ways he could have reacted toward Brad Keselowski on Sunday for an earlier incident.

A. Keep letting him wreck me.

B. Confront him after the race.

C. Wait until Bristol and collect other cars.

D. Take care of it now.

"Every person has to decide what code they want to live by, and hopefully, this explains mine," Edwards wrote.

Now it's NASCAR's turn to determine its code. Series officials are expected to announce today what, if any, penalties, they'll impose on Edwards for wrecking Keselowski and sending his car airborne at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR's decision is likely to determine the sport's direction on a number of levels. If there is a heavy penalty, paybacks -- long a part of the sport's fabric -- could fade away. A light penalty would signal that the governing body won't get in the way of feuding drivers settling the score on the track.

Opinions vary on what NASCAR should do, from those suggesting a suspension and fine to those wanting to send Edwards a thank-you card for giving fans something to talk about.

Some say that there's no way NASCAR can penalize Edwards after drivers were told coming into the season to "have at it, boys." The unofficial motto was NASCAR's way of giving drivers more leeway in settling differences with each other on and off the track. It was meant to harken back to the past, when drivers wrecked one another on the track and fought off it.

Some observers are contending that Edwards shouldn't be penalized because he didn't intend for Keselowski's crash to be so severe. However, judges punish people every day for actions that turned out to be more severe than intended.

Edwards may have miscalculated by retaliating at one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. He was upset because he felt Keselowski wrecked him earlier in the race.

That NASCAR didn't penalize Keselowski for the earlier incident was a sign that series officials saw that was a racing accident.

Even if Edwards believed it was Keselowski's fault, to exact revenge with cars going 190 mph all around them is a dangerous game.

Of course, this isn't all Edwards' fault. NASCAR opened the door to this kind of retribution last year, when it allowed Denny Hamlin to wreck Keselowski in a Nationwide race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last fall -- a week after he told anyone who cared to listen that he was going to do it.

NASCAR watched as Juan Pablo Montoya wrecked Tony Stewart a day later in the Cup race for a previous incident. In both cases, Hamlin and Montoya received light penalties during the race and nothing afterward. Although speeds were about 25 mph slower there than at Atlanta, the cars were still going about 165 mph.

Today, NASCAR could choose to use a penalty to send a message to the drivers that such action is unacceptable at the bigger tracks.

But what would that penalty look like?

It's hard to imagine that series officials will suspend Edwards for the next race, which is Bristol in two weeks. One option for NASCAR is to penalize Edwards points. He earned only 46 on Sunday. So even a modest 50-point penalty means he didn't score any points at Atlanta -- almost as if he wasn't there.

Even if NASCAR penalized Edwards 100 or 150 points, it wouldn't totally destroy his chance to make the Chase. But suspending him for the Bristol race, on the heels of Sunday's poor finish, would likely put Edwards so far behind that he would have no hope of making the Chase this year. NASCAR typically doesn't like to make such calls for a single incident.

Along with a points penalty, Edwards likely will be fined and placed on probation through the end of the year.

Whatever NASCAR does, the drivers will be looking for the message. So what does NASCAR want to tell them?

A. Don't fight back and keep getting wrecked.

B. Wait until after the race to confront the driver.

C. Wait until a short track race to gain revenge.

D. Take care of it ASAP.

Edwards made his choice. Now, NASCAR's up.