The Cool Down Lap: Harvick-Busch feud keeps stealing the headlines

The Cool Down Lap: Harvick-Busch feud keeps stealing the headlines

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(June 13, 2011)

 

By all rights, this column ought to be devoted to the formidable accomplishments of Jeff Gordon.

 

After all, Gordon added to his legacy Sunday at Pocono Raceway, where he added an 84th victory to his career total, tying him with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for third all time.

 

There’s little doubt that Gordon, already a four-time champion, will enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It’s an extreme long shot to think Gordon might catch second-place David Pearson at 105 wins, but as long as Gordon keeps building his record, that’s a possibility.

 

Apart from his accomplishments on the racetrack, Gordon deserves enormous credit for the work of his charitable foundation, which is focused on children’s issues. NASCAR couldn’t ask for a better representative of the sport. Gordon has a brain to go with his talent, and he uses it.

 

As nice as it would be to devote an entire column to Gordon’s achievements, that’s not going to happen, because Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch just won’t stop having at it.

 

When Regan Smith got his first Cup victory May 7 at Darlington, Harvick and Busch dominated the headlines with the postrace confrontation that landed them both on probation through June 15. On Sunday, they were a distracting sideshow to Gordon’s milestone win.

 

As early as Lap 2, the antics began, with Harvick crowding Busch as Busch tried to pass him. Later, Busch shot out of Turn 3, with Harvick pile-driving him down the frontstretch. NASCAR quickly tired of the cat-and-mouse game and warned both drivers to stop fooling around and race.

 

Was Harvick trying to get into Busch’s head?

 

You could say that. Harvick did.

 

“He knows he’s got one coming,” Harvick told reporters after the race. “I just wanted him to think about it.”

 

And did he think about it?

 

“Of course he did,” Harvick said. “It’s all a free game now. Probation’s over.”

 

Probation will be over, at least, when the drivers take to the track at Michigan this weekend, but the feud clearly will not. There’s a deep-seated animosity between Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing that goes far beyond the occasional run-in between Harvick and Busch, and that will help keep the fire burning—no matter how hard Busch tries to avoid the conflict.

 

“It was another car I had to pass,” Busch said of Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet. “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 kind of shows his character and who he is, how he feels he needs to race on the racetrack. But it’s not my fight. He’s trying to turn it into one.”

 

If the Busch-Harvick subplot stole some of the attention Gordon deserved, so be it. Long term, that won’t be the case. Gordon will get his due, but the four-time champion isn’t ready to consider his legacy. To Gordon, it’s still a work in progress.

 

“You know how I want to be remembered?” Gordon said. “I want to make it to that speech. I’ve been to two Hall of Fame events. I want to be on that stage mixing it up with the other people when that day comes—and hopefully it does—and I want to be able to express it then, because I think I’ll have had the moment and the time and the appreciation to truly embrace it and understand what it means.

 

“I’m just not there yet.”

 

Eventually, he will be—long after the Harvick-Busch feud is forgotten.