Top 10 NASCAR fights we'd like to see
See the fight
Photos: Kevin Harvick's scuffle with Carl Edwards in the garage definitely got physical. Check out these photos of the fight to see how it all went down.
First, the two had to be separated on Thursday in the Nationwide Series garage, an incident that grew out of an Edwards-caused wreck last weekend at Talladega. Harvick fueled the flames during Nationwide Series qualifying Friday. When asked whether he was playing head games with Edwards, he replied, "That's not hard to do.
"You just gotta be careful who you wanna pick a fight with," Harvick added. "If you want to pick a fight with the wrong person, sometimes it turns around and bites you, no matter how big and tough you think you are."
Who'd win a fight between 32-year-old Harvick, who's listed at 5-10, 175, and Edwards, 29, who goes 6-1 and an extremely muscular 185? Depends who you ask. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is careful not to offend anyone, calls it a draw.
"Kevin would never back down from anybody," Earnhardt said. "And you know that Carl is pretty tough, a pretty strong dude."
Earnhardt's team owner Rick Hendrick tops the garage when it comes to avoiding controversy.
"I just try to fly underneath the radar," Hendrick said. "I'm a very non-confrontational person."
Rusty Wallace, the "Jaws" of his generation and current ESPN analyst, offers his two cents.
"Carl might be stronger, but Kevin is crazier," Wallace said. "I have to go with Kevin for now because Kevin wouldn't think twice about going into a toolbox and grabbing a hammer. Carl would want to hit him. Carl's a tough guy and I like him a lot, but Kevin is a little crazier. If he could see anything hard — a jackhammer, a hammer, a big ol' wrench — he would whack him right in the head with it. No doubt about it."
Sounds like they could beat the scrap out of each other. But every big fight needs an undercard. So, with apologies to Don King, here are 10 NASCAR Fights We'd Love to See.
1. Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. — This pair had it out at Richmond — twice. The first time, Richmond's finest helped escort Shrubby out of the house. In Round 2, Junior put the feud to rest. "If I wreck somebody, I ain't going to leave them in good enough shape to come back and get me in the same race," Earnhardt said. "That wasn't really my intentions. I ain't never really wrecked someone on purpose. If I wanted to do it I would have done it really, really good."
2. Tony Stewart vs. Kurt Busch — Busch the elder didn't learn his lesson after tangling with Jimmy Spencer at Michigan. After a month-long battle stemming from Busch calling Mr. Excitement "a decrepit old has-been" at Indianapolis, Spencer pounded the back of the No. 97 Ford, then pounded the driver. Busch's mouth got him in trouble with Smoke in the NASCAR hauler in February after the two champions collided during practice. Telling Stewart that his Subway diet was not working wasn't a good way to start the season. It also cost the boys six weeks probation.
3. Denny Hamlin vs. Brad Keselowski — At Lowe's Motor Speedway in May this season, Hamlin complained that the rookie Keselowski was "racing" him. Imagine that. Cars racing on a racetrack. Hamlin said it was an issue of a yellow-striper respecting his elders. "You throw a rock, I'm going to throw a concrete block back," Hamlin said. Keselowski told Hamlin he gets paid to race and has just 300 Nationwide Series miles each week to prove his mettle. Keselowski certainly proved his worth to Rick Hendrick, who decided to give the rookie a shot in a Sprint Cup car.
4. AJ Allmendinger vs. Scott Speed — Can't wait to see these two on the track at Martinsville. Sources say Speed ingratiated himself to the Red Bull powers that be in Austria, undercutting Allmendinger for the No. 84 seat. If this clash comes to shoes and pedicures, my money is on Speed.
5. Kevin Harvick vs. Juan Pablo Montoya — Typical case of boys being boys on a road course and battling for the same real estate. Montoya was tapped by Martin Truex Jr. and took out Harvick, who threatened to kick some Colombian butt. "It just seems like (Montoya) runs over someone every week," Harvick said. Montoya insisted that the wreck wasn't his fault and replied, "I have a little respect for the guy — well, I used to have a little respect for the guy." Race winner Tony Stewart said if they were really going to go at it, the opponents needed to lose the helmets and HANS devices first.
6. Rusty Wallace vs. Ryan Newman — There was never any love lost between this Penske pair. The curious thing was the Captain — Roger Penske — never took control of the situation, and the animosity festered through the end of Wallace's tenure. The 1989 Cup champion could never accept a second driver in the stable who was younger, smarter and equally talented at the sunset of Wallace's career.
7. Jeremy Mayfield vs. Ray Evernham — This driver/owner divorce was one of the ugliest in recent years. Mayfield filed a lawsuit against Evernham claiming the owner had "a close personal relationship" with a female driver which became a disruption to the team. It's not like Evernham's relationship with Erin Crocker was a secret to anyone in the garage, but the lawsuit enabled Mayfield to collect his golden parachute before Evernham put Elliott Sadler in the car.
8. Jack Roush vs. Lee White — While wooing the media last March, White ripped his former Ford boss Roush and accused him of cheating at Las Vegas. Roush fired back, calling the Toyota Program director "a chihuahua nipping at (my) ankles." Roush's No. 99 car was penalized 100 championship points for an oil tank cover that came lose during the race. White admitted that his Toyota engineers attempted the same trick in a German wind tunnel months earlier and discovered the maneuver added 170 counts of downforce. Perhaps it's just a case of who gets caught.
9. Mrs. Busch vs. Mrs. Biffle — The former Nicole Lunders and the former Eva Bryan showed a willingness to stand by their men even before they were married to, respectively, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch. It happened at Texas in April 2006 when Lunders slammed down a water bottle and charged Busch's pit after Busch wrecked Biffle. Bryan interceded, to the delight of onlookers. Alas, the ladies have become workout buddies and dinner mates. Still, maybe something could be arranged for charity. Picture the Talladega infield, a mud pit and a fire hose. The mind boggles.
10. Brian France vs. Joe Fan — Have a complaint for NASCAR? Imagine if you could take it up with the Chairman himself, inside a boxing ring. Let's see how the master of the verbal bob and weave makes out on the canvas. The venue? Daytona International Speedway, of course. Each round could be dedicated to a different issue: the COT, the Chase, ticket prices, starting times, abandoned tracks, TV. But the challenger should beware — Kid Privilege has never been knocked out.
advertisement
