NASCAR Cup Series

Harvick picks on Busch at Pocono

Published Jun. 12, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

In the final week of NASCAR probation, Kevin Harvick made the most of “boys, have at it” in the opening laps of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.

The cat-and-mouse game began on the second lap of the event with Harvick chasing Kyle Busch, with whom he shares probation after a postrace incident in May, high and low on the racetrack.

“I was running my own race,” Busch said. “It was another car I had to pass. Seemed like he was trying to make it awfully difficult on me. There’s a couple of times where I just had to back off and wait, got back to him and tried to pass him again.

“Maybe (it) kind of shows his character and who he is, how he feels he needs to race on the racetrack.”

It didn’t take long for NASCAR to step in. The sanctioning body delivered a warning to the teams over the radio.

“Nothing went on — and that’s what we were hopeful of,” said NASCAR Sprint Cup director John Darby. “Early in the race Kevin and Kyle were racing hard just like everyone else was up in the front. A couple of trips down the front straightaway, it looked like they could have given each other some more room, so we just sent a general message to them that we were watching them race and just remind them that we were watching them. The rest of the day went really smooth.

“The boys still have one more race to go before they get their handcuffs off, so to speak. It just makes sense. If we can avoid a problem, that’s what we usually work at.”

Busch and Harvick’s probation officially ends on June 15. While Harvick still believes that Busch "knows he's got one coming. I just wanted him to think about it" after his car was destroyed following the race at Darlington Raceway, Busch insists, “It’s not my fight. He’s trying to turn it into one.”

Harvick clearly doesn't agree. When asked if he made Busch think about it, he was succinct.

"Of course he did," he said. "It's all a free game now. Probation's over."

Busch and Harvick went on to finish the race in third and fifth, respectively. Darby called the incident “just racing” and didn’t feel there was anything malicious. The sanctioning body just felt the need to send a friendly reminder.

“We’re going to watch guys on probation closer than guys that aren’t," he said. "Nobody did anything wrong. But we just wanted to provide a reminder hopefully prevent an issue later today and the day went off smooth so everyone was paying attention.”

Busch's No. 18 car failed to meet the height requirement on the left front side in postrace inspection. NASCAR is expected to address the situation further on Tuesday.