NASCAR walks fine line on policing

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

The boys, it seems, are still having at it, and NASCAR, to no surprise, still has no defined line on its year-old policy of letting drivers settle their own scores.

That’s the conundrum NASCAR leaders faced Monday as they huddled to review a pair of weekend altercations at Darlington Raceway that raised attention to the ratings-challenged series, but tested the limits of just how far feuds should be permitted to play out.

The first, between Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman, happened behind closed doors with only NASCAR’s top officials present to witness a Friday meeting that “did not go as well as we had hoped.” Rumor has it that Newman punched Montoya in the meeting, a claim neither driver would confirm or deny.

But that NASCAR took the unprecedented step to issue a statement — one that promised further scrutiny of the two drivers — was confirmation enough that something bad went down in the tight confines of NASCAR’s at-track office.

It turned out to be just the opening act.

Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who have a long history of not getting along, then tangled on the track in the closing laps of Saturday night’s race. Only Busch knows if the contact he had with Harvick, which led to Harvick teammate Clint Bowyer’s race-ending crash, was intentional.

Busch claims it wasn’t, just one of those racing incidents he attributed to Harvick’s lack of on-track etiquette, but Harvick had no interest in calmly discussing the incident. So he stalked Busch after the checkered flag, stopping his car on pit road in front of Busch.

Busch maybe could have driven around him, but instead pulled up to Harvick’s bumper. And when Harvick climbed from his car, approached Busch’s window, and as he leaned in to throw a punch, Busch bumped Harvick’s empty car enough to send it spinning into the wall.