Where do drivers stand on etiquette and aggression?

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Aggression is the name of the game in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, especially with the playoff pressure building as the regular season winds down. But how do drivers feel about the current etiquette -- both on and off the track? Scroll through to see the differing opinions the competitors shared.

Kyle Busch


"(The younger drivers) belong all right, that's fine. It's not like they don't belong. The problem is the etiquette and the race crap that they're coming in with. They didn't have the Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart of the world that were able to help them through some of the growing pains. I tried to do some of that with some of these guys -- (laughs) most of the kids at KBM.


"Yeah, you certainly have to stand up for yourself sometimes, but, man, you have to be smarter about what you're standing up for. When you’re losing one spot on the race track to somebody, that's not standing up for yourself, that's being smart and knowing the guy behind you is two seconds a lap faster than you and he's going to go by eventually anyways. That's what Mark Martin used to do. … Hell, maybe you can learn something when he goes by."

Bubba Wallace


"Once you get higher up and get more years under your belt, you're supposed to get out of their way when they're coming through the field. Who's the young guys who have a voice? Not one of them is going to speak up to anybody. No one else is going to. Why not? Hell, I'm my own person. I don't have to follow suit. Hell, I'm different already. Look at me. … I’ve always done what I thought was right and what I thought was fair.


'Well, these guys did it this way.' Awesome. They want a cookie for it? I'm not out there running them over and wrecking them. I'm out there running my own race."

Michael McDowell


"You just have to be so aggressive with this package, even last week at Watkins Glen you had to be aggressive. I think that's a lot of what you're seeing. You're just seeing a lot of aggression. Anytime you have guys racing that hard for that long, you're going to get it wrong. I think more than anything, it's not somebody trying to take advantage, it's trying to get everything you can get all the time.

"You'd have never in your right mind tried to do something like that to Tony Stewart. You'd have been in the wall. You'd been digging SAFER barrier out of your teeth for the next week. It's just so different, the style of racing now because the closing rate is different, you are so close and you have to block those runs."

Daniel Suarez


“The way that we drive, and I say 'we' because I'm the same way, Lap 1 we're going to be four-wide and three years ago you never saw that. Now we know how important track position is and you have to get it when you can. Doesn't matter if it's Lap 1 or the last lap. You have to be aggressive and as race car drivers, we don't forget anything. We know that everyone is being more aggressive, and we want to be more aggressive.


"Everyone races very hard. You never know. There are people racing more aggressive and racing closer to each other and that's fun, but the line is thinner. That's for sure, for everyone. Sometimes even with teammates. That's the way you have to race. I think it's fun. We are all our very passionate and we all get high tempers when we don't like the way things play out on the race track."

Joey Logano


"There is no written rule. It is kind of just what you have seen in the past and you can kind of read between the lines of what is OK and what is not."

Brad Keselowski


"If you are a top-tier driver you are going to run these cars hard. You have to. You have to push the limits, not just of your car but of everyone else's cars. I can’t think of anyone that is a top driver that I wouldn't expect that from."

Kurt Busch


"I think it's been the same all the way through, no matter what year it's been. Yet, this is that time of year when things are heated because there's guys on the bubble. It could be where it's a young guy that gets roughed up by a veteran, or a veteran that gets roughed up by a younger guy. It doesn't matter who it is, if you're in a bubble situation, that's the pressure cooker. I think it's the same as years past and the same style of racing, it's just being talked about a certain way because people like drama more than talking about the racing that's on track."

Daniel Hemric


"I feel like we all know the situation we're all in and what we're all fighting. You give us an inch and we try to take a mile, right? We're trying to take advantage. When someone gives you a little bit of room, you've gotta take it. We also understand why guys weren't giving that kind of room. It's just hard racing, right? … Every weekend we're all racing for our livelihood and racing for our jobs. We're putting our race teams in the best position and our sponsors in the best position to have good results. … Just decisions you've got to make on the fly and live with them."

Ross Chastain


"You know when someone oversteps the line. Whether it's blatant or not, the drivers know. … Everybody is racing aggressively. Everybody is blocking these days with this package. Same with the Truck Series and even Xfinity. Everybody blocks and it's a matter if the guy you're blocking is going to let you do it or if they're going to turn you around. It's just part of today's world. You have to win. You either don't block and your friends with everybody or you block and win."