Could the rivalry between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have been put to rest after Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350? That's certainly what it looked like when Busch approached Harvick to shake his hand and say "good race."
Since their rivalry started last year at Homestead, Harvick and Busch have certainly kept things interesting on and off the race track. Whether it be wrecking each other during and after the race at Darlington, running each other down to the inside pit wall at Pocono, or ribbing on each other in TV and media appearances, there have certainly not been any dull moments. So with the possibility of their rivalry being put on hold, what will be left to keep us all entertained?
Enter Robby Gordon, Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne.
Last season at Infineon Robby Gordon and Joey Logano got into each other and left Logano feeling incredibly angry. Yesterday at Infineon, Gordon and Logano were back at it again. Gordon was doing a lot of blocking for multiple laps in front of Logano who was clearly faster. Heading into turn 11 Gordon blocked Logano again, but this time Logano didn't take it so nicely. Logano pushed right through the back of Robby Gordon's number 7 car right into the tire barrier on the outside of the turn.
Gordon was not very happy about this, as would be expected from Robby. Over the radio Gordon said “Somebody ought to have Joey Logano’s dad come down to watch him get a spanking." Then to SBNation after the race Robby said, “I guess I need to pull a Richard Childress on him, just not at the race track," in reference to Richard Childress allegedly putting Kyle Busch in a headlock and punching him three times.
Juan Pablo Montoya is a driver who is always one of the favorites on the road courses, but is also one of the most aggressive drivers as well. Well, yesterday was no different. Montoya got into Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski, and it ended with JPM getting spun by Keselowski. Montoya spun out Kahne at the top of turn 2. Then a lap later he made contact with Keselowski at the bottom of the track. Entering turn 2 Keselowski spun JPM to let Montoya know that he didn't appreciate the contact.
After the race Montoya said:
“I got beside (Kahne) and he knocked me a couple of times, and they just don’t give me any room so it was hard.
“The No. 2, I got on his bumper moved him a little bit, got beside him and passed him and he just plain and simple wrecked us.
"It’s hard when people don’t know how to race on road courses and think they do. It’s OK.”
However, Kahne and Keselowski saw things differently.
“Montoya just drove through me at the top of the hill, that’s just obvious,” Kahne said. “Last year when (the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) cars were really, really good and Jamie McMurray was the man, Juan still couldn’t win a race. That shows about what he can do here in NASCAR anyways.
“He got mad probably because I beat him into Turn 1 when he was beside me off of (Turn) 11, so he just got mad and wrecked me into (Turn) 2,” said Kahne. “That’s why he got mad – he didn’t get mad because I didn’t give him any room.”
Keselowski felt that he was about to be wrecked so he decided to wreck Montoya instead.
"The body language of Juan’s car said he was going to wreck me," Keselowski said. "I just made sure that didn’t happen.”
All of this has happened the week before Daytona and the new tandem-drafting returns. It looks like some drivers may have a difficult time finding a dancing partner who isn't angry with them over yesterday's race. So while Harvick and Busch may have put their rivalry to rest, other rivalries may have just begun and will certainly keep us more than entertained as the season rolls on.
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