Edwards, Busch rivalry exactly what sport needs

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch was called into the dreaded NASCAR officials' hauler following Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

No one was saying what exactly transpired behind the sliding glass doors of the hauler after Sprint Cup Series director John Darby crooked his finger toward a group that included Busch, his crew chief Steve Addington and the owner of Busch's No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs. It was pretty obvious, however, that Busch was delivered a tongue-lashing after he ran into the side of race winner Carl Edwards' No. 99 Ford during the cool-down lap (watch video).

Darby and his fellow NASCAR officials should have delivered Busch some high-fives instead. Maybe even a pat on the back, followed up by a note of thanks to the entire No. 18 team for spicing things up.

Suddenly, the 2008 Sprint Cup season is dripping with drama -- and perhaps NASCAR's next great rivalry has moved from the incubation stage into full-blown adulthood.

Sure, Busch's move was childish and his post-race comments came off as the whiny complaints of a poor loser. He was upset because Edwards had passed him for the lead with 31 laps to go by rapping him from behind and essentially moving him out of the way -- you know, like lots of guys used to do at Bristol, much to the satisfaction of crowds that have been sellouts for 53 consecutive races.

Edwards' countermeasure, when he retaliated for Busch's post-race bumps by turning hard left into the right rear of the No. 18 car and turning it around, might rank as immature as well. But man, it was great to see.

It's exactly the sort of stuff NASCAR needs to pump up the volume on its sport and this season with two weeks left to go before the latest Chase to the Sprint Cup championship commences.

He said, she said

Busch tried hard to restrain himself after the race, but it quickly became obvious that he was upset with the way Edwards had muscled past him and that he considers it some sort of continuance of deviant behavior by the driver of the No. 99 Ford on the racetrack (watch video).

"He'll always come back and say he's sorry," Busch said. "He did it at Milwaukee and he's done it a few other times. It's just his normal fashion. That's fine. I've grown to know that now.

"You know, to pass a guy, to hit him getting into the corners ... is very tired. But that's what he did. ... I had been getting into the corner light all day, and I don't know, maybe I over-braked and drove myself right back into his nose."

Edwards, naturally, saw it all much differently (watch video).

"The way this works is: you know, a real smart racer once explained it to me this way after he had wrecked me and I was real mad," Edwards said. "He said, 'I just had to look at your rear bumper and decide if you would do it to me, and you had, so it was a real simple decision.'

Sharpie 500

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Carl Edwards	Ford
2.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
3.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
4.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
5.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
6.	Ryan Newman	Dodge
7.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
8.	Tony Stewart	Toyota
9.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
10.	David Ragan	Ford

• Results | Points | Lap-by-Lap
• Race Video | Photo Gallery

"Earlier in the year we had a Nationwide race and Kyle was a lot faster than me, and he got to my back bumper and just smoked the back bumper of my car and sent me up the racetrack. And after that he said, 'Sorry, man, my car was just faster.'

"So in my mind, I had to ask myself when I went down there in the corner, should I lift and brake early and do the best I can, or should I just kind of give him a little tap and see what happens? So that's the way it went, and that's the decision I made. And you know, I'd do it again."

Or as his team owner Jack Roush of Roush Fenway Racing said, "It came down to Carl wanting it bad enough. And it was there for him and he took it."

It's called racing hard, Kyle. It was the kind of racing that puts fans in the seats, and Edwards shouldn't have to apologize for it. Of course, Edwards didn't -- and wanted to remind everyone of that.

"Let's make it real clear: I'm not apologizing for it," he said.

Rivalry fueled?

Busch gave a clipped answer when he was asked if he now has a full-blown rivalry with Edwards.

"How many do I need?" he asked, suggesting his eight race victories in Cup this season, and 17 overall across NASCAR's three top series, make him the driver everyone wants to target.

Let's make this real clear, too: Busch has been terrific on the track all season, and he drove a fantastic race at Bristol. He took the lead on Lap 55 and held it until Edwards' bump-and-run with 31 to go. But in the end he became merely another footnote at the venue where the laps led leader has failed to claim victory in the last six events held there.

Shortly after emerging from the NASCAR officials' hauler following the post-race meeting with Busch, Addington and Gibbs, Darby had to work hard to keep a grin off of his face.

"To me, the neat part about tonight is that, like in so many years past at this place, the dominant car of the night doesn't end up in Victory Lane because somebody figured how on that last run to catch and pass him," Darby said. "I was very, very pleased with the whole race. It was real good."

So was Roush, of course. His driver won for the second consecutive week -- Edwards won the previous race at Michigan -- to put more heat on Busch. It was Edwards' sixth win of the season, second only to Busch; and it suddenly seems not only like a possibly budding rivalry for the ages but, more important in the short term, a definite rivalry for the upcoming Chase.

"The great rivalries have been celebrated," Roush said. "The first time that NASCAR had a race that was [televised] live [from start to finish], it was the [1979] Daytona 500 and [Cale] Yarborough and the Allison brothers [Donnie and Bobby] got hairballed down the backstretch when things went bad to their mutual dissatisfaction.

"The rivalries have been something that have attracted interest and generated the positive and the negative feelings of the fans, and I think this has been a year when there really have not been any rivalries. ... This may be the starting of a new era."

So be it. It's about time. Thanks, Kyle. And you, too, Carl.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer

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