Kenseth, Harvick delve into racing rivalry

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The latest bare-knuckle rivalry in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing reared its head again Friday morning at Michigan International Speedway.

In separate media gatherings, defending NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick said their actions last weekend at Pocono Raceway were indicative of something that has been simmering under the surface.

"It's very disappointing," Kenseth said. "I thought that we both could have been more grown up and settled this thing a long time ago and I've certainly tried -- but it hasn't worked out."

"He is never wrong and he's the champ and he's going to think what he wants and that's what it is," Harvick said of Kenseth. "I can promise you that I'm probably more stubborn than he is."

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NASCAR fined each driver $25,000 on Wednesday for their bumper-tag antics at Pocono and they were placed on probation through Aug. 11, a seven-race period.

That's a new experience for Kenseth, who has never been under NASCAR's probation, but not for Harvick, who actually was made to sit out a Cup race in 2002. In fact, both Harvick and his car owner, Richard Childress, said NASCAR held Harvick's past history against him when levying the Pocono fine.

"I don't think that's probably the right way to go about things," Harvick said. "But what has been right in the last few weeks?"

Kenseth said he regretted intentionally spinning Harvick entering Turn 3 at Pocono and was embarrassed that he had, but it was in reaction to the latest in what he called a series of questionable racing incidents between the two.

"Kevin and I have had a couple of incidents," Kenseth said. "They haven't been that big of a deal, but we've had a few.

	Matt Kenseth

"At Dover in the Busch race I wasn't quite clear, I slipped (up) in front of him and he stayed in the gas just enough to wreck me and (he) knew what he was doing."

At Pocono, one week later, Kenseth said he decided his rule of racing people as he wanted to be raced, wasn't working.

"If you keep doing that and don't get that favored returned, sometimes you quit doing that and start racing people how they race you," Kenseth said. He said that was what prompted his and Harvick's scrap under green late in the Pocono 500.

"When we came off the Tunnel Turn I still had two or three feet on him at least and he just came up like I wasn't there," Kenseth said. "He wasn't clear to move up and he moved up and ran into my left front (fender) and got himself picked off the ground doing that.

"I didn't think that was wrong. I think if anything I did him a favor by letting off the gas and not wrecking him, which I don't think he would have done to me."

Kenseth said he has been unable to work out his differences with Harvick or to determine if anything that occurred at Pocono might have been a mistake.

"You always take it as a mistake when you can talk to somebody reasonably -- to talk about it and work it out," Kenseth said. "That's never been the case with (Harvick). There have been times, maybe before, when we've been able to work it out but not the last few times."

Harvick, who revealed a Matt Kenseth t-shirt underneath his driver suit after qualifying Friday afternoon, countered that his impression of Kenseth's style was solidified this season at Martinsville Speedway; and that he has raced him no differently than he would anyone else.

"The thing with Matt started at Martinsville when he wrecked us," Harvick said. "I think when you look at that situation -- he tries to be the nice guy and tries to say all the things he says.

"It's like I told him in Martinsville (when) he was complaining about the way I race. I race hard and I race as hard as I can around everybody.

"He is of the mold of stop and point and pull over (while) I have to race hard. That's the way I was taught to race, like I told him there.

"You have to take it for what it is and go on with it."

Kenseth said he would go on in a less giving mood, particularly with Harvick.

"If I move up on him and need that two feet he's not going to give it to me, then I'm not gonna give him his two feet anymore either," Kenseth said. "That's just the way it is.

"You have to race everybody a certain way. Most everybody out there would give you that two or three feet, but there are always those one or two guys that aren't gonna give you that two feet.

"I'm tired of giving it all the time. If they're not gonna give it, then that's still my lane, too.

"Like I said last week, what I did under caution after I got spun out was totally wrong, but up to that point I didn't feel like I really did anything wrong."