CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch had just sat down for his weekly media availability when the package arrived. The big brown box was emblazoned with the logo of FedEx, the sponsor on the car of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin -- with whom Busch had a heated on-track altercation during last weekend's All-Star exhibition event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"Is it ticking?" the interview moderator asked. Busch reached in and pulled out a large bag of peanut M&Ms and a pair of boxing gloves courtesy of Marcus Smith, the president at a Charlotte track that's never shied away from a good controversy. And yet, among the participants, it quickly became clear that the hard feelings still lingering from last Saturday night were no laughing matter.

“

... each year I think Kyle's going to grow out of it, and he just doesn't.

”

-- DENNY HAMLIN

"It surprised me, and I wouldn't have expected my teammate to race me that way," Busch said Thursday before opening practice for the Coca-Cola 600. "But he's the leader, he's got the race track, and now I understand that."

There was a vivid misunderstanding in the final stage of the Sprint All-Star Race, when Busch had a run to the outside of Hamlin entering Turn 2 with only a handful of laps remaining. Hamlin, the leader, didn't budge, and the No. 18 car was pinched into the wall. The contact caused a rub on a tire that blew laps later, sending Busch into the wall again and knocking one of the best cars out of the $1 million-to-win event.

Busch was livid afterward, remarking over the radio about how he wanted to kill his teammate, and parking his wrecked vehicle not at his transporter, but at Hamlin's. He and team owner Joe Gibbs watched the end of the race until Hamlin arrived, and the car owner tried to negotiate an uneasy truce. Days later, it was clear that Busch still felt his teammate raced him the wrong way, and should have given him more room.

"His perception was, it's the All-Star Race, it's every man for himself, and I wasn't under that impression going into the race. That's why I was surprised at the fact of what happened," Busch said. "... If the roles were reversed, I don't believe I would have done the same thing. That's just me."

Both drivers remain unrepentant, Busch feeling that he had been wronged, Hamlin believing his teammate had no one to blame but himself. Had he been able to do things differently, Hamlin said, he wouldn't have changed a thing.

"Kyle brings this stuff up himself, and he gets mad at the media for asking him questions about his blow-ups and stuff, but he does it to himself," Hamlin said. "I don't want to be part of it. Any drama that he wants to create or anything is on him. Anything he says on the radio is on him. All I'm going to say, and I'm going to be done with it, each year I think Kyle's going to grow out of it, and he just doesn't. Until he puts it all together, that's when he'll become a champion. Right now he just doesn't have himself all together." (Continued)