Notes: Horsepower sport of King's, and the Queen's (cont'd)

McMurray surprised by fine

Jamie McMurray thought he was about to part with a few bucks to buy a go-kart from a NASCAR official when he was informed that his wallet was about to get a whole lot lighter because of an incident between McMurray and driver Kevin Harvick at the end of last Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega.

"When I went in to talk to him about buying [the go-kart], he asked me if I had talked to [John] Darby [Nextel Cup Series director]. And I said, 'Why would I talk to Darby?' McMurray said.

Drivers fined

NASCAR penalized Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick for what appeared to be intentional and unnecessary contact between the two cars after the caution froze the field on the white-flag lap of a green-white-checkered finish at Talladega.

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"[The NASCAR official] said, 'Well, because I think you might have gotten into some kind of trouble in Talladega.' And I said, 'Well, no, I didn't get in trouble. I didn't do anything.' ... I didn't think anything happened that was bad enough to result in a penalty or a fine."

McMurray was wrong. Harvick, thinking McMurray had been responsible for an earlier incident that actually was the fault of another driver, sideswiped McMurray's car in frustration. Then McMurray appeared to swerve into Harvick in retaliation. McMurray denied that being the case, but the incident eventually resulted in NASCAR levying $25,000 fines for both drivers.

Harvick learned of the fines when McMurray called him to ask what he had been so fired up about, and after Harvick apologized for a hot-headed response directed at the wrong driver.

"Yeah, well, it cost us $25,000 apiece for you to be hot-headed, and for me to not do anything," McMurray said he told Harvick. "He said, 'No way.' And I said, 'Oh, no, it's real. I just talked to John Darby.' It could have been avoided and never should have happened."

No fans of the COT

Driver Kyle Busch's criticism of the Car of Tomorrow may not be as vocal as it was when he won the first COT race in NASCAR history at Bristol on March 25, but it hasn't really softened any.

Asked what kind of race fans could expect Saturday, Busch deadpanned: "Oh, it'll be great. It'll be single-file, follow-the-leader just like the last [COT race]."

Driver Clint Bowyer was even more pointed in his criticism of the COT. He said of Saturday's event: "I think the Cup race will be another boring one." Then he explained why he thinks so.

"I think that every time we run this car, it's going to be a different race," Bowyer said. "I think that grip is always an issue with this car. It's just hard. You're racing yourself. You're racing the racetrack. If someone comes up on you, just let him go. It slows you down when you're racing door-to-door. It's almost impossible; it just slows you down so much."