It took some time, but we found our first punch in the Sprint Cup Series Chase for the championship.
Following the finish of Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Kurt Busch rubbed the side of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet. After parking on pit road, Harvick took a swing at Busch, who was still strapped into his No. 41.
“The final laps, everyone is pushing and shoving,” Harvick said. “Then [Kurt Busch] cleaned the side of our car out after the checkered flag. I don’t really understand that.”
Despite running second for much of the closing stages, Harvick fell to seventh while Busch finished third.
“We didn’t have a scratch on it until the end, so that’s pretty good for Talladega,” Harvick said.
Busch, who joins Harvick in the Round of 8, believes it was a case of misunderstanding and denies any bad blood with the 2014 champion.
“He has a misunderstanding of the call at the end of the race,” Busch said. “He’ll understand it and I’m sure he’ll clear it up. For us, we’re great teammates, we’re doing good together.
“We have to work together to beat all these other teams out there and he knows that.”
What the what? RT @GeoffreyMiller: Did Kevin Harvick punch Kurt Busch? pic.twitter.com/gEMMOYPd20
— Texas Motor Speedway (@TXMotorSpeedway) October 23, 2016