Trading paint, punches becoming more common

Jenna Fryer

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 | 2:24 a.m.

Upset with some on-track rubbing and wanting to discuss it with Chad Little, Kevin Harvick instead got a drink poured over his head and wound up in a shoving match that landed him on the ground.

Thinking he was intentionally taken out of a race, Greg Biffle ran down the track and threw a punch at Jay Sauter through his car window.

Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd, involved in some serious bumping and banging in three straight races, followed their latest contact last week in Dover, Del., with a physical confrontation and angry name-calling.

As NASCAR hits the homestretch of a long season, tempers are flaring on and off the track.

The sanctioning body is watching this latest rash of bad behavior and has been busy doling out punishment.

"It's typical of this time of year," said Kevin Triplett, NASCAR's director of operations. "You have a very long stretch of races where guys either aren't doing as they'd hoped to at this point in the year or guys are doing better and are in critical points positions.

"It's getting down to the nitty gritty. But when it gets beyond the nitty gritty, that's when we have to react."

A developing problem with rough driving and hot tempers started last month at Bristol Motor Speedway, a track with a history of creating feuds.

Kevin Harvick, the rookie in the late Dale Earnhardt's ride, started it by bumping future teammate Jeff Green out of his way to win the Busch race.

An upset Green pulled alongside at the finish line to discuss it, but Harvick had no desire to listen. His response? Beginning his celebratory burnout by creating puffs of thick, white smoke for Green to choke on.

In the main event the next night, the feud between Wallace and Rudd officially began.

Trying to gain position in the final laps of the Winston Cup race, Rudd tapped Wallace aside. Wallace got his revenge on the cool-down lap, ramming Rudd from behind.

Both drivers attributed the tap to "brake failure" from Wallace, but NASCAR called them into the hauler for a lecture.

Tempers flared again at Darlington Raceway the next week, when Harvick and Little had their fight after the Busch race. The confrontation cost Harvick - now called "The Instigator" as a spinoff of Earnhardt's nickname "The Intimidator" - a $10,000 fine and probation.

Despite the penalty and an ensuing lecture from NASCAR over his driving in the Darlington Cup race, Harvick has the support of car owner Richard Childress.

"Emotions can run high in racing," Childress said. "All of us at RCR work very hard to win. There are times, especially after racing on a demanding track like Darlington, when we can get carried away by our emotions."

Perhaps that's why Harvick was bold enough to tangle with Wallace and Rudd the next week in Richmond, Va.

With Wallace leading the race and Rudd and Harvick in pursuit, a tapping sequence began that knocked Wallace out of the way.

Then Rudd and Harvick fought it out, with Harvick bumping Rudd out of the lead.

"Sometimes you just run into each other a little bit," Harvick said.

Rudd didn't agree. After the tap, he radioed his crew that, "That kid is mine."

Several laps later, he tapped Harvick and went on to win the race.

It did little to soothe his anger.

"The only thing I can say is that you can do that and you race each other and you use a little class about it, or you can kind of be like a bull in a china closet," Rudd said. "He sort of chooses to do the second."

Little did Rudd know Harvick would be the least of his problems.

Still seething from the Bristol tap, Wallace, nearly a lap down, spun Rudd out of the lead last Sunday in Dover, Del.

Rudd recovered and finished third, but later had to be restrained after grabbing hold of Wallace.

"I knew he was called 'Rubberhead Wallace' in the garage area but I never knew why until now," Rudd said. "He took the race away from us."

Wallace also had some choice words.

"His memory is pretty short," Wallace said.

With just under two months to go in the season, the bumping and banging probably will continue Sunday at Kanas Speedway as drivers battle for position in the series standings.

Robert Yates, who owns Rudd's car, expects to see more action between his driver and Wallace before it's all over.

"It's a good old-fashioned racing feud," Yates said.