Harvick, Logano lock horns in Texas

Kevin Harvick had direct words for Joey Logano after yet another on-track run-in between the two, one in which Harvick smacked Logano's No. 22 Ford with his bumper, sending the Team Penske driver careening up the track and nearly into the wall during the closing laps of the Duck Commander 500.

It didn't ruin the day for either -- Harvick would finish second to Jimmie Johnson, and Logano rallied from the near-disaster to claim fourth -- but fanned the flames of a rivalry that dates back to last year.

"He blocked, and I knocked him out of the way. I'm tired of him blocking," Harvick said succinctly on pit road following the race. "That's the chance you take when you block."

Logano climbed from his car following the race and glowered in the direction of Harvick's No. 4 Chevrolet. He took a swig of Coke and cast his eyes in the direction of the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion one more time, not even perking up when teammate Brad Keselowski came over for a lively pep talk.

The two cars were parked less than 50 feet from each other, but it was clear there remains a large gulf between the two, one that was filled with a humming tension under the bright Texas lights.

It's a chasm that deepened severely last year ahead of the title race at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Harvick did his best to get into Logano's head with his answers at the championship press conference.

This time, Logano -- although frustrated – better understood Harvick's position.

"It's hard racing," Logano said. "It's understandable. I expect to get raced the way I race people, and I would do the same thing. I felt like I had to guard that position. I felt like if he got by me there I wouldn't have the opportunity to get back by him and I felt like I would have lost the race that way."

"I get it," Logano added moments later, almost as if he needed more self-convincing. "Early in the race that's not acceptable. End of the race we're racing for the win. I'd do the same thing."

Despite the fireworks, there was no pit-road incident this time -- and the two have had one terse discussion already this year, at Daytona after the Sprint Unlimited -- but the chance of confrontation was on the mind of both teams.

"You need to stop with that (4) so we don't have a situation on pit road after the race," spotter Tab Boyd told Logano over the radio.

"Be ready for anything with that 22 bunch," was the call on Harvick's radio channel. "You never know."

That wasn't the only intriguing late-race radio talk. One exchange demonstrated how Harvick's frustration with being blocked wasn't just limited to Logano.

Johnson, who led a race-high 128 laps, outlasted the Stewart-Haas Racing driver over the final frenetic laps, but "Six-Time" also drew the ire of "Happy," whose nickname didn't match his feelings on the end-of-race sequences.

"You might want to remind the (expletive) what happened to the 22 when he blocked," Harvick hollered into his radio, referencing Johnson, who would later claim he didn't hold up the No. 4.

Blocking clearly is something that's unacceptable to Harvick, who has been absolutely dominant this year. He has two wins, leads the points standings … and his 96 laps led Saturday was his third-lowest total in the season's seven races.

"I think there was a lot of hard racing tonight," Harvick said. "I don't really like blocking, but I guess you have to do what you have to do."

In Saturday's case, that went for both Logano and Harvick alike.

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