NASCAR: Edwards-Harvick feud over after meeting

CONCORD, N.C. -- From NASCAR's standpoint, the feud between Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick is over.

The two drivers, who were involved in a physical altercation in the Nationwide Series garage on Thursday, were summoned to the Sprint Cup hauler Saturday after the drivers' meeting preceding the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. They met with NASCAR president Mike Helton, Sprint Cup director John Darby, and series vice president for competition Robin Pemberton, and walked out together peaceably.

AP

Harvick and Edwards

"They were asked to stop by for a little chat," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications. "NASCAR wanted to make sure everything was fine and behind us, and we're convinced it is."

They two drivers were involved in a fracas Thursday that stemmed from comments Harvick made following last weekend's event at Talladega Superspeedway, where Edwards sparked an accident that took out several other cars, According to witnesses, they engaged in pushing and shoving that eventually involved one of Harvick's crewmen and also dented the hood of the No. 33 Nationwide car.

Photographs of the scuffle between Edwards and Harvick show a more physical confrontation than witnesses described, with Edwards at one point grabbing Harvick by the throat.

The photographs, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, show the two drivers clutching each other as their conversation grew heated. In the five different frames, Edwards is shown grabbing Harvick by the throat, and Harvick pushing him off him and onto the hood of Harvick's car.

Harvick said Friday that he and his crew "just protected our turf," and that he "could give two sh---s about Carl Edwards." But the drivers raced around each other in Friday night's Nationwide event and Saturday night's Cup race without incident, and NASCAR said no penalties are forthcoming.

"It's a non-issue," Hunter said.

Jack Roush, Edwards' car owner, was on the way back from a gala at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington when he received news of the altercation. "Emotions rise," Roush said Saturday. "Drivers are passionate. It's not unthinkable for those emotions to spill over once in a while."

And as for Saturday's meeting in the NASCAR hauler? "I don't know what was said between them," Roush added, "but I would hope from my conversations with Carl that he held out a hand of friendship."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.