Happy Hour 1: Your reactions to what happened after the Texas race

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg.We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy.

And welcome to this week's Happy Hour. It's a special edition of Happy Hour this week as we'll have two versions. In this one, it's the cleanest and (sometimes) most sensical emails we received amidst the substantial feedback we got from Sunday to Tuesday about the Texas pit road melee.

In our other version we'll talk about anything and everything that isn't associated with the fracas. That way you can read both if you like or if you're sick of the fighting, you can skip to the other stuff or vice versa. Seems logical, right?

If you've been living under a rock, four crew members were suspended for their roles in the incident. Three are on Jeff Gordon's team. One is on Kasey Kahne's. Drivers were not penalized.

We'll start this Happy Hour with people who were furious about the incident.

Other than Joey he has no respect in the garage.  Nobody will disagree he is not a good driver, that’s a given.  When you take somebody out by SLAMMING into them and if you actually take time to watch the video of that and not the video of the fight he SLAMMED into him where it would take out the valve stem and you can bet he knew it.  Sorry I love Nascar but Nascar had a talk with Earnhardt and Darryl Waltrip about the sport being able to carry on without either of them perhaps it is time for that chat with Brad.  You can write what you want Nick but the other drivers will not put up with it. I will wager that Brad will not win the championship even if somebody has to take a suspension over it.  He is despised, not disliked. - Jim

Once again Brad shows his willingness to wreck anyone at any time.  He is a dirty driver and the media keeps taking his side and saying “just racing”. In all my years watching NASCAR I don’t recall a driver employing such tactics, even Sr. wasn’t as obviously trying to wreck his competitors to secure his victory, he had some class at least. This has been going on since his first victory at Dega when he wrecked Edwards rather than take the second place finish he had earned. - Ron

And here are the emails where people weren't so mad.

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I'm not sure what everyone else saw, but I saw Keslowski doing the exact same thing Gordon would have done when that gap appeared, he went to pass same as Gordon would have. So why'd Gordon and his crew go all crazy? Because it was Keslowski that snuck through that gap or because he just got bettered and knew it? - David

I watched the G-W-C three or four times, and Gordon came down on BK.  Gordon defended but he pulled down and BK is not going to stop trying to win.  This is competition, this is for all the marbles.  This is a driver who is paid to win.  He holds no prisoners, he goes to win.  People don't like BK.  Did people like the Intimidator?  It's to early to compare BK to Dale, but I love watching BK do everything he can to win.
I will support BK until he does a bone-head, then will ask.  Right now, he is paid to win.  There are many of my contacts who agree;  only a few disagree.  It's called winning, not dancing. - Jim

Nick, great article.  I thought the move on the track by the 2 was a great move, you could see him sitting on the 48's corner anticipating the 24 to move up the hill to get a run. Like him or not BK drives with heart and passion and I want that in my driver and my race team. Everyone seems to forget  he won his chmpionship with a broken leg. Did I mention I'm a Jeff Gordon fan?

Jeff No. 5 is not going to be gifted to you bud, it will be need to best racing of your life. Watch the tape you left the door wide open and chose the wrong lane if it wasn't the 2 hitting the gap it would have been the 4. - Damian

It's not a spoiler if you read what I wrote on Sunday evening, but the latter three emails are the ones I agree with in the tale of two extremes. Keselowski was going for the win and I feel this is an instance where his reputation precedes him.

After the race, Kevin Harvick said he wouldn't have made the move Keselowski did, so you can't say every other driver in the garage would have gone for it. But I think we can safely say that Keselowski wouldn't be the only driver to make that move in that position. And if another driver had done it, would Gordon be so angry?

Mind you, Gordon had every right to be furious about what happened. His race and possibly the Chase was tossed aside with that cut tire. But, again, given Keselowski's reputation and the fact that he was in a kerfuffle with Matt Kenseth just a few weeks prior, you know the recent history was weighing in Gordon's mind. Hell, earlier in the race when Keselowski had not pitted and gotten the lead, Gordon talked on his radio about Keselowski mirror-driving to keep Gordon in second.

Ultimately, if every driver raced the same way, NASCAR would be bland, don't you think? The pit road stuff aside, it's fun to debate the merits of a freaking three-wide move for the lead with less than 10 laps to go. It's just unfortunate that you can't think about the move and the what-ifs without immediately thinking about the skirmish.

And speaking of the skirmish itself, let's talk about that now.

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Why are they guys not put in jail for fighting.  This is classified as an assault, I think the law needs to get involved and arrest all involved.  Don’t mess with Texas…don’t mean (crap) when the fight at NASCAR….If I was fighting with another individual, would I get arrested or get a pat on the back.- Vernon

What's with the jail stuff? Don't we already realize the precedent that has been set when it comes to sports fights? No one involved in the fray was going to press charges and no authority figures were going to step in without that impetus to press charges themselves.

Do I feel that fighting is stupid? Yeah, I do. NASCAR teams acting like toddlers is briefly entertaining but ultimately fruitless. Except for the NASCAR Foundation. It's now $185,000 richer.

I'll continue my thoughts below after this wonderful email.

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Wish you would have been in the middle of the fight and taken a beat down to rattle your brain into reality. Fighting after a race is great for the sport and always has been, especially with the boredom suffered through the last few years. It's the same at our local tracks and sells tickets in case you've been under a rock. If you don't know anything about racing, stick to writing in your ladies home journal with your dress on. - Neil

Ignoring the blatant sexism in this email, how can anyone be so certain that fighting is good for NASCAR? Yes, the sport started its popularity boom in 1979 because of a fight at Daytona, but the fight at Daytona was also driver-on-driver. It was distinctly different than the ridiculousness we saw on Sunday.

But types of fights aside, NASCAR is also a totally different sport than it was in 1979. And you will find people that say it's for the better and others that say its for the worse. But a fight bringing your very niche sport national attention and placing it on the sports landscape is different than a fight making your national but-not-always mainstream sport fodder for outlets that don't normally cover you to dissect.

Oh, and if we could be so quick to say that fighting was good for NASCAR, wouldn't the television ratings for Talladega have been up and not down 600,000 viewers than the year before? It was the race after Charlotte. And if people tuned in because of the fight, well, it was at the expense of other viewers.

I also don't want to dwell heavily on this, but I feel that my tweet from earlier in the week also has bearing to this discussion.

Again, Gordon had every right to be mad. But because of the presence of Keselowski's crew members (which Gordon knew would be there) there were very good chances it wasn't going to be a fight until Kevin Harvick shoved Keselowski. And, after the skirmish, Harvick said: "If you're going to race like that, you're going to have to man up at some point. I mean, he's done it several times.  Can't just turn around and let everybody fight all the time without you in there. Have to stand up for your actions at some point yourself."

But what is standing up for your actions? Gordon talked to Keselowski, and as Gordon kept trying to get closer and closer, Keselowski moved back. He didn't walk or run away, he simply didn't want any part of a fight. What's wrong with that, especially when considering the events that led to the anger?

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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