Kasey Kahne's No. 9 Dodge was beaten and battered at Phoenix on Sunday. Credit: Credit: Autostock

Harvick, Kahne rub each other the wrong way

Drivers contend post-race actions the end result of hard driving

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- After a long day in the desert, not even the checkered flag could stop the fireworks at Phoenix International Raceway.

Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne raced hard for the fourth position late in the Checker Auto Parts 500, and the battle continued after the race was over.

Kahne said he "rubbed" Harvick's car on the cool-down lap, but Harvick "blasted" Kahne's car. On pit road, Harvick cut in front of Kahne's car and was screaming at the rookie, but Kahne couldn't hear him.

CHECKER AUTO PARTS 500 •   Results •   Standings VIDEO Victory Lane Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates his sixth win of 2004 Desert heat Harvick and Kahne get together after the race is over Final laps Two late cautions set up a three-lap sprint to the finish Double trouble Kenseth blows an engine for second week in a row Sadler in the wall Elliott Sadler cuts a tire and hits the wall on Lap 154 Bang-up job Several cars spin and crash on lap 128 Rim riding Kenseth blows a tire, bringing out the second caution

The two crews converged on their drivers, but the small crowd was quickly dissipated, and Harvick and Kahne both drove away.

Kahne's crew chief, Tommy Baldwin, came over to Harvick's car to have a few words, and even as NASCAR tried to keep Baldwin away, the two drivers spoke and appeared to reconcile.

Baldwin, you'll remember, was put on probation for his role in a pit road fight at Chicagoland Speedway.

"I told Tommy what was going on," Harvick said. "Kasey's not big enough to get out of his car and fight this battle."

But Kahne said he wasn't mad.

"It was just hard racing," Kahne said. "I thought we were all kind of having fun. I was the one getting bumped all over the place, and I was having fun with it. I think everybody was. Our cars -- mine and Kevin's both -- were all beat up. It was all pretty fun.

"After the checkers, that was when the emotion on both sides (appeared)."

Harvick's version of the incident was similar.

"We were all just racing hard there at the end," he said. "I got into him a little bit, and I think it ticked him off. It's one thing to race these things under green, but it's another thing to wreck them under caution. We're not the ones who has to fix them.

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"I just wanted to stop and ask him if I should've done something different. I thought we were racing hard."

They were, Kahne said.

"We rubbed," Kahne said. "I rubbed him a little bit and just kind of waved at him. We did the same thing (Saturday). Then he blasted me a couple times. I think he thought I was mad at him, but I really wasn't."

Later, in the post-race news conference, Kahne explained his side again. Harvick, it seems, had gotten under the skin of more than one driver Sunday.

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"He was a little high-strung today," Jeff Gordon interjected.

Why, yes, Gordon and Harvick traded paint early in the race battling for position.

"I think he took his frustration out," Gordon said. "His car wasn't that good right then, and I think he took it out on me because I felt like I passed him pretty clean. I had to slide up in front of him a little bit off Turn 4, but he just pounded me all the way down the front straight. He pounded me into Turn 1 and about wrecked me there.

"It was kind of on from that point. My car wasn't the same after that, and so it kind of cost both of us."

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Maybe it didn't cost either driver much; Gordon finished third, with Harvick fourth.

For Harvick, the result was his first non-restrictor plate top-five finish since Bristol in March.

"We battled back," Harvick said. "This whole team did an awesome job. I told them, 'Let's just fix it. We can get back up there and do what we have to do to race hard.' We raced our way back up there and got a little bit lucky with the pit call. For once, things fell our way."