No Respect

The last few weeks in NASCAR have seen quite a few confrontations between drivers. After a Nationwide race in Richmond Kyle Busch confronted Steven Wallace after Busch felt that Wallace raced him to hard on the final lap. Wallace responded to Busch words by yanking his helmet and calling Busch, "a girl".

This weekend was chalked full of conflicts towards the end of Saturday night's Nationwide race, Brad Keselowski ran into the back of Denny Hamlin's car, Hamlin retaliated by veering his car into Keselowski's and damaging Keselowski's left front quarter-panel. Keselowski's owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr retaliated by running his car into the back of Hamlin's car. The whole thing ended with the crews of the teams having a shoving match on pit lane after the race. The mystery though is what started the whole thing in the first place.

�I don�t know,� said Keselowski, when asked in the media center why he drove into Hamlin under the yellow. �He�s here. Ask him.�

�Ask him first,� Hamlin retorted. �I retaliated. I didn�t retaliate based on what happened earlier in the race.� Hamlin then went off about the is a lack of repsect there is for Cup drivers from the Nationwide drivers. �You throw a rock, I�m going to throw a concrete block back,� he said. �You�re going to have to deal with it.�

Keselowski disagrees with Hamlin's views. �I race one day a week,� he said. �I don�t race twice a week. I�ve got one day a week to prove myself. I have 200 laps, not 400. I have to take every opportunity I have to prove myself.�

Last night even more conflicts spawned with Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya getting into a shoving match with their cars down the backstrecth and towards the end of the race Kyle Busch gave the "you're number one!" signal to Jeff Gordon after Gordon held Busch up while Busch was trying to lap him. The two former teammates had a heated discussion after the race and Gordon gave his views on the matter.

�He�s got an issue because he gave me the finger, and you know what?� Gordon said. �That�s not necessary for a guy he just didn�t like racing him the way I did. Kyle and I never had any issues, but I raced him hard tonight just like I did everybody. And when track position is as important as it is here, you�ve got to race every single car for every single position. And I wasn�t going to give anybody an inch, and I was racing for position."

This lack of respect will only continue as long as NASCAR allows it and with NASCAR's new theme this year of bringing old-school racing I don't expect this problem to end anytime soon. I do hope someone comes along soon and knocks some of these assholes in there place. This sport needs real men driving stock cars, not 5-year olds bumping tricycles and getting into a slap fight about it.

Crews face off after Hamlin-Keselowski contact under caution (Scenedaily.com)

Former teammates Gordon, Busch displeased with one another (Scenedaily.com)