DOVER, Del. -- Jeff Gordon said that the spat between him and former teammate Kyle Busch is behind them, a non-issue according to his own words.

Following last weekend's Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte, Busch and Gordon exchanged words after they finished third and fourth, respectively. The dispute spouted from what both drivers admitted was plain old hard racing in the closing laps of the Coca-Cola 600.

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"After the race, I went up to him and asked him what I ever did to deserve to be raced that way. He was just telling me he was fighting for all he had with his car. He didn't have a car that was capable of going through the field and passing people. He was trying to fight for every spot he was worth," Busch said of last week's disagreement. "I respect that. I just felt like I could have used a little bit more racing room than he gave me."

Gordon said the two had raced aggressively earlier in the event, and when Busch confronted him about the issue afterward, it was simply the wrong time.

It didn't help that Busch reportedly had harsh words over his in-car radio about Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson, or that Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. tangled a month ago at Richmond.

"I think that if you just look at the circumstances, I'm sure that he's not happy about the way he left Hendrick, but I would think he's got to be pretty happy where he's at right now and things that are happening," Gordon said.

Busch admitted on Friday at Dover International Speedway that confronting Gordon immediately following last week's race was the wrong moment to discuss the problem, and that Gordon told him as much. The two patched things up during this week's test at Pocono, but it may not have changed the reputation Busch has developed, particularly this season when he's been the Cup Series points leader while also being the center of controversy on multiple occasions.

"It's just Kyle being Kyle," Gordon said.

It's not the first time a driver has said that, and Busch doesn't appear to care if it's the last time, either.

But is this the new-age mentality of younger drivers? Jeff Burton said being aggressive on the racetrack has become more accepted whereas the respectful driver has been criticized.

"If Denny Hamlin is leading a race and I'm running second and catch Denny Hamlin and I don't wreck him running second, people say, 'Well, he wasn't trying hard enough,'" Burton said. "I race the way I race, and that gets me what it gets me. Some days it's a win, some days it's eighth, some days it's 15th, some days it's 30th. The unfortunate part of our sport is that giving it your all is right there before wrecking, and unfortunately we have a lot of people in the media that because you don't wreck they say you're not trying hard enough."

There was no crash involved in last week's Nationwide Series race at Charlotte when hard racing resulted in on-track banging between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keslowski under caution. Hamlin wasn't happy with the way Keselowski raced him during the event, and showed him as much when he banged his car into the left-front fender of Keselowski's No. 88.

The resulting fireworks are what made the headlines. Dale Earnhardt Jr. stood up for Keselowski -- who drives the car owned by Junior -- by pulling around him and bumping Hamlin in the rear under the same yellow. On pit road following the race, the crews of Keselowski and Hamlin confronted each other after the checkered flag.

Keselowski's crew chief, Tony Eury Sr., was fined and placed on probation, while two other crew members from the 88 team were either fined or suspended (read more).

"There are a lot of egos in this sport. A lot of times those egos are bigger than their brains," Clint Bowyer said when asked about the on-track move. "When you get on the racetrack, in my opinion, you have to leave those egos in the motor home. You gotta be smart. You owe it to your team to be smart and when your emotions get the best of you, you make bad decisions."

Bad decisions can oftentimes have lingering effects, added Kevin Harvick. And by his own admission, he knows.

When Harvick entered the Cup Series, it wasn't without controversy. In 2002, his second season in Cup, he was suspended for a Cup race due to aggressive driving in a Truck Series event at Martinsville. Six years later Harvick finds himself as the team owner of the defending Truck Series champion.

"I've been in the same boat and you learn to respect the people around you," Harvick said. "That's probably the biggest thing I learned as I came in and was kind of the same way, is that you think you're invincible and pretty soon you're not. And then you don't have anybody to turn to in the garage, and that becomes a little bit of a problem as you move down the road or you need a favor for somebody to come do something or you need a new job or whatever the case may be. At some point, all that disrespect comes back because no matter how good you're doing, because you're not going to be good forever."

Speaking on the Gordon incident and told that Harvick addressed the topic of respect in the garage area earlier in the day, Busch said: "It's not Harvick's fight and he shouldn't be involved in it."

In terms of respect, Harvick said the lack thereof doesn't last long in racing.

"You have to respect the guys who laid the foundation for the sport that got you here and I think the age, just the immaturity is probably the biggest thing he had going for himself," Harvick said, "and this sport has a very good way of breaking you of those habits pretty easily."