NASCAR’s Return to Rivalries

Some Drivers Simply Don’t Like Each Other

The first 28 races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season didn’t produce too many notable conflicts among competitors. But just as chillier fall temperatures rolled around, things suddenly turned hot on the race track.

And it all started with Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and the first elimination race of the playoffs – hosted by Bristol Motor Speedway, appropriately known as Thunder Valley.

After tangling memorably on the track and in the garage at the high-banked Tennessee short track’s annual night race, the two former Cup Series champions engaged in a back-andforth brouhaha that continued for multiple weeks and set the NASCAR world abuzz in anticipation of what would happen next.

During the offseason, Harvick was still mad enough at Elliott to go on the popular Dale Jr. Download podcast and vent his frustrations to host Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Specifically, Harvick was still miffed about how Elliott drove at Bristol. After cutting a tire and making an unscheduled pit stop necessitated by contact with Harvick, Elliott retaliated by racing Harvick especially hard in the final laps despite being laps down. Elliott’s aggression allowed his teammate – Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson – to catch and pass Harvick for the victory with four laps to go.

Harvick went on to record his first winless season since 2009, and employees of StewartHaas Racing were denied the bonus they would normally receive for one of the organization’s drivers wining at Bristol. Harvick blamed Elliott for SHR employees missing out on this money.

“In the end, he took hundreds of thousands of dollars out of everybody’s pocket,” Harvick told Earnhardt Jr. on The Download. “All the team guys were mad.”

Then, Harvick added one more nugget, making it clear he and Elliott hadn’t worked out their differences.

“There still needs to be another conversation before we start the next season,” Harvick said, alluding to the animated exchange he had with Elliott after the Bristol race.

Harvick and Elliott were hardly the only drivers less than pleased with each other in 2021. In the next-to-last race, held at Martinsville Speedway, Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman banged together while racing for the lead in the closing laps, resulting in Hamlin spinning and Bowman going on to take the win.

Hamlin later expressed his displeasure with Bowman by calling the Hendrick driver “a hack” during a post-race interview and stopping his No. 11 car on the frontstretch to disrupt Bowman’s victory celebration. Bowman never apologized for wrecking Hamlin and sees no reason to apologize – or antagonize the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

“I’ve been getting pushed around and bullied for a long time, so I know if I say something back, it just turns into a shitstorm, right?” Bowman said during an exclusive interview with NASCAR Pole Position in late December. “It kind of builds up and then you start going back and forth with somebody, and it’s just not worth it. I would have been mad, too, if I were him (Hamlin) … but he stepped over the line and made it superpersonal after the race, but I also understand why he was mad.

“So at that point, I feel like he made it superpersonal, I crashed him, I don’t feel like either of us owe each other anything. I feel like we’re kind of even at that point. He might not see it that way, but I think everything he said kind of erased me being sorry.”

In that same race at Martinsville, former champs Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski also sparred, but their issue didn’t occur until the final lap while battling for second-place off Turn 4. Following their initial contact, the two collided again in Turn 1 on the cooldown lap, with Busch’s No. 18 Toyota spinning and Keselowski continuing.

“I should beat the shit out of him right now is what I should do, but that doesn’t do me any good,” a steaming Busch later told a group of reporters on pit road.

Martinsville wasn’t the first time Busch and Keselowski have ever clashed, either, so it’s likely their rivalry will continue – and perhaps even intensify – this season. And the same can be said for the other rifts that emerged in late 2021.

Stay tuned.

Some Drivers Simply Don’t Like Each Other

BY JARED TURNER

WILL THESE DRIVERS MIX IT UP IN 2022?

When the 2021 NASCAR season ended, several drivers weren’t seeing eye to eye with each other. Here are five emerging rivalries to keep a close eye on this year:

KEVIN HARVICK VS. CHASE ELLIOTT

What began with contact on the track during the September night race at Bristol

culminated three weeks later on the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway when Harvick deliberately spun Elliott and even admitted his intent during a post-race interview. Elliott got the last laugh, however, when he advanced to the next round and Harvick was eliminated from championship contention that same day. As the page turns to 2022, no signs suggest either driver is ready to move on.

ALEX BOWMAN VS. DENNY HAMLIN

Hamlin delivered a low blow to Bowman when he called the Hendrick Motorsports

driver “a hack” in a televised interview just moments after Bowman had captured his fourth win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. While Hamlin was displeased to have gotten the short end of the stick on the race track, Bowman understandably bristled at Hamlin’s disparaging remark. Whether these two drivers will bury the hatchet or revisit their disagreement will be one of the most intriguing storylines to watch in 2022.

BRAD KESELOWSKI VS. KYLE BUSCH

Keselowski is with a different team – Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing – than

DANIEL HEMRIC VS. NOAH GRAGSON

the Team Penske organization he drove for when he and Busch clashed on the final lap of last fall’s race at Martinsville Speedway. It’s unlikely that Keselowski’s new digs will matter a whole lot, though, if Busch feels like he still needs to settle a score with Keselowski for running into him both coming to the checkered flag and immediately after the race ended.

Two of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ most talented young drivers, Daniel Hemric and

Noah Gragson, engaged in an all-out fisticuffs after the spring Xfinity Series race at Atlanta. To put it mildly, Hemric was unhappy that Gragson had backed into his car during a pit stop, and he showed it by abruptly grabbing Hemric during a live interview. The two then attempted to punch each other while shouting profanities. The great irony? They’re two of three drivers sharing a Cup Series ride this season for Kaulig Racing.

JOE GRAF JR. VS. GRAY GAULDING

Arguably the most dramatic fight of 2021 occurred moments after the spring

NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Martinsville Speedway when Joe Graf Jr. and Gray Gaulding scuffled on the ground in an attempt to settle an altercation that occurred during the race. NASCAR officials and crew members eventually separated the two angry drivers but only after they created quite the spectacle in the garage. If both return to the Xfinity Series this season, another run-in is far from out of the question.

BITTER RIVALS

Rivalries Fuel Passion for NASCAR

Throughout NASCAR’s storied history, on-track rivalries among drivers have developed due a variety of reasons, ranging from personal egos to the horsepower under the hoods of the cars they drove. Here are five rivalries that helped to write NASCAR lore over seven decades of stock car racing:

BY BEN WHITE

CURTIS

TURNER BOBBY

ALLISON CALE

YARBOROUGH DARRELL

WALTRIP

During a race at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston Salem,

North Carolina, on Aug. 27, 1966, veteran Curtis Turner wrecked relative newcomer Bobby Allison on the eighth lap. While trying to pass Turner to return to the lead lap, Allison wrecked him. The two drivers then traded paint in retaliation for more than 10 laps.

During the late 1970s, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough

battled fiercely enough to cause Yarborough to tag his rival with the nickname “Jaws,” as the movie of the same name was so popular in the movie theaters. Waltrip couldn’t resist mentioning Yarborough’s chicken sponsorship in his verbal jabs.

JIMMY SPENCER KURT BUSCH

AFTER TWO YEARS, THE JIMMY SPENCER

and Kurt Busch feud came to a head in 2003 when Spencer went after Busch in the garage area at Michigan International Speedway and connected with a punch. Spencer wound up being suspended for a race by NASCAR and the local authorities were even called to investigate.

BRAD KESELOWSKI

CARL EDWARDS

DURING THE 2010 SEASON, BRAD

Keselowski and Carl Edwards couldn’t seem to stay away from one another on the track. The result was contentious, so much so that each found themselves flipping into the catchfences at Talladega and Atlanta. The feud escalated so badly that NASCAR had to step in.

AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY IN OCTOBER 2015,

Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano got into a crash that caused tempers to escalate at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway the next week. Their feud came to a head at Martinsville Speedway on Nov. 1, leading Kenseth to intentionally dump Logano into the first-turn wall.

MATT KENSETH

JOEY LOGANO

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