Flipping out over Edwards, Busch
Chase bumps NASCAR rivalry to the side
LOUDON, N.H. - Carl Edwards had just concluded an interview with a small group of reporters Wednesday in New York. He rose from his chair to put on a black sports jacket as he began to make way for the next interview subject, Kyle Busch, the driver with whom Edwards clashed Aug. 23 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, giving rise to NASCAR's latest rivalry.
Spying a glass of water he left untouched on the coffee table in front of him, Edwards smiled mischievously and cracked, "Leave that for Kyle. When he takes a sip, tell him I spit in it."
Rivalry? What rivalry?
Don't expect any bad blood to linger between Edwards and Busch when the Chase for the Sprint Cup gets underway tomorrow with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The emotions that erupted at Bristol seem to have simmered. Or at least that's what Edwards and Busch would like you to believe.
Forget that NASCAR put the drivers on probation for six races for "actions detrimental to stock car racing."
It all came a boiling point when Edwards unapologetically bumped Busch's No. 18
In his postrace remarks, Busch, who wound up second, took a shot at Edwards, saying, "Carl's going to say he's sorry and that he didn't mean to race that way, the way he always does - Mr. Ed-like."
"They keep talking about rivalries - we might have one now," Edwards shot back.
As for his bump-and-run move that vaulted him to the lead and eventual victory? "That was one of those deals where I couldn't get by him," Edwards said. "I had to ask myself, 'Would he do that to me,' And he has before, and that's the way it goes.
"I just kind of ran into him, that's what happened," Edwards added. "I have a lot of respect for the guy, and he was real fast, but we can't give up points when they're right there for us to take."
Such talk certainly had track promoters in the Chase wringing their hands in delight, but was it necessary in a sport in which drivers have to maintain a certain sense of decorum to maintain a certain image for their multimillion-dollar sponsors?
"I think that stuff is good for our sport," Jeff Burton said yesterday. "I almost get the sense that some people relish it, enjoy it. They think it's cool. And I've been able to see it from my side of it, I don't evoke passion from people. People don't throw stuff at me, but they don't throw stuff to me, either. Kyle Busch, there are some people who want to throw some stuff at him and there's people who want to throw stuff at Tony [Stewart] and there's people who want to throw stuff at Jeff Gordon. But they have that many people who want to throw stuff to them, too.
"That's what our sport is all about. I think that's what makes sports work, period, not just our sport. What's cool about going to a Duke-Carolina game? What's cool about going to a Red Sox-Yankee game? Part of it is the passion of just really not liking the other team. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. It needs to be done respectfully."
Since then, however, the Busch-Edwards rivalry has cooled considerably. It's even taken on a respectful tone. In fact, both drivers seemed to suggest as much in separate interviews Wednesday in New York, saying Bristol was ancient history.
"Pretty much," said Busch, the Chase's No. 1 seed, who will take a 30-point lead (5,080 to 5,050) over No. 2 Edwards into NASCAR's 10-race playoff format. "He's going to be another guy we've got to go out there and race. We're going to race him just as well as we would anybody else. There's a lot bigger prize to win the championship than it is to put the 99 in the fence, so we've got bigger fish to fry."
Asked if he and Busch could stand being in the same room, Edwards noted he and Busch shared a studio and joked with each other as guests on Stewart's
"What happened on the racetrack was just racing at Bristol," Edwards said. "What happened afterward was just a shame it happened, things got out of hand. Really, Kyle, he's just another competitor. That's how I treat this thing. It does me no good to waste any extra energy worrying about anything aside from that.
"Really, we're both professionals and so much happens every week and every day in this sport that stuff goes away pretty quickly. I'd say we're just the same as we've always been, it's really no different. I wish it hadn't turned into something. I wish it was just good racing. But that's how it happened and now we'll go forward and just race." 