Burton, Harvick end spat, ready to work together

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- If you listened to the in-car radio conversations on a couple of Richard Childress Racing's cars last weekend at Martinsville, you would have thought that teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton were going to wreck each other or worse -- get out of their cars and pummel each other after the race.

During some close racing with just under 150 laps remaining, Harvick keyed his microphone to speak to crew chief Gil Martin and said "I'm telling ya, Gil -- he's out of mulligans," and then cited episodes in previous races at "Loudon, Indy and here" where he felt teammate Burton had raced him inappropriately.

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At the time, Burton protested over his radio, "I'm a good teammate -- I did nothing wrong" and reiterated the same opinion when asked about it after the race.

Friday at Talladega Superspeedway -- the next track on the schedule and the place most necessary to having a friend in the draft, if not a teammate who's also friendly -- Burton and Harvick said the passion in their radio chatter was as fleeting as static and that both were ready to be even better teammates.

In their own ways, both drivers downplayed the incident and said any misunderstanding was settled shortly after last Sunday's Martinsville race.

"A lot can be made out of things that we say on the radio," Harvick said. "And obviously, neither one of us did a very good job at that. The thing about Jeff and I is that there is a lot of respect there and we have had those spats before and we can handle those things in about five minutes.

"So it's very easy for the two of us to talk about those things and figure out how we can make that situation better for not only us but our race teams and try to do better next time. So [it was a] very simple, very convenient, very easy meeting and that was it."

Burton likened it to a brotherly quarrel, opening his explanation with an obvious statement.

"I think we're both very competitive people -- everybody on the race track is a competitive person," Burton said. "I think the best way I can describe it, RCR is like a family and sometimes families argue amongst themselves and carry on, probably more with your family than they do with people they don't even know [and] that's probably what happened with us last week.

"We sat down [Tuesday] and had a great meeting and talked about it and I think in the long run it will actually help us -- we'll be better teammates for it. Both of us could have handled that situation better, both of us had something to learn from it [and] it is completely over."

Burton said that sometimes, incidents are unavoidable.

"It is hard, man -- being teammates is hard," Burton said. "You always expect more out of your teammate. You're trying to be a good teammate, but you're also trying to beat your teammate and it's a very, very difficult. I'm surprised we don't have more incidents, to be quite honest [but] Kevin and I are good."

Whether or not Burton and Harvick will be in a position to work together in Sunday's Amp Energy Juice 500 remains to be seen. Burton qualified fifth and Harvick was 14th after they rolled-off 33rd and 34th in the qualifying order. Both men said planning to help anyone is largely out of their control.

"I think if you go back and look at history, [2010 Daytona 500 winner] Jamie McMurray and I have drafted together a lot and we wind up at the front of a lot of these races and usually together," Harvick said. "I feel comfortable around certain guys and he's one of those guys that I feel comfortable with him pushing me and pushing his car.

"More of it is just coincidence than it is anything [planned], but there has to be something to the fact that I know those group of guys that I'm comfortable with and you look for those guys during the race and hope that they're around the same spot you are."

Burton agreed that pre-planning who to draft with, just doesn't happen.

"We've had zero discussion about that," Burton said. "We actually had discussion, and it's very clear to all of us at RCR, 'if you're in a position to help your teammate, you go help them.' But you don't do that if it's going to hurt you. That's kind of the way it has to be.

"This is still racing. We are RCR, but at the same time, we have to go and do the very best we can for each individual team. If we don't do that, then I think we really mess with the credibility of the sport."

Related:
• Tempers flare between RCR teammates
• Menzer: Harvick 'pretty close to a home run' at Martinsville