Kyle Busch and Earnhardt have a little get together

Newton

By David Newton
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: September 7, 2008, 9:58 PM ET

AP Photo/Shawn Chamberlin

Kyle Busch, top, was in the lead when his car and that of Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact on Lap 212.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. insisted revenge wasn't on his mind when he spun out points leader Kyle Busch racing for the lead on Lap 212 of Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.

"I wreck somebody, I ain't going to leave him in good enough shape to come back and get me in the same race, so that really wasn't my intention," NASCAR's most popular driver said after a fourth-place finish.

"I really ain't never wrecked anybody on purpose … but if I wanted to do it I would do it really, really good."

But Earnhardt did take credit for the accident that put Busch a lap down in 38th.

"He was up front leading and … I felt I was a little quicker and was gaining on him a little bit on each corner," he said. "I was on the bottom real tight and that wasn't going to get by him.

"So I moved up to get next to him and race him hard and I got down into [Turn] 1 too hard and got into the quarter panel and spun him out."

Replays seemed to show Busch drop down the track to force the contact, but Earnhardt said that didn't change the blame.

"This is the deal," Earnhardt said. "He might have come down, you know, but it's really the guy on the inside's job to take care of the guy on the outside. It's not his job to move out of my way even if I'm on his left-rear quarter panel.

"I tried to stop left front. We slid the left front for 15 to 20 yards and that thing vibrated the whole rest of that run and we sort of faced from there on out."

That's pretty much the way Busch remembered it as well.

"From all I know I got hit in the left-rear quarter panel," he said. "I spun out trying to keep it out [of the wall] the best I could. Just hard racing."

Did he consider it revenge for the first Richmond race in which he got into Earnhardt's side and spun him out racing for the lead with four laps to go?

"Who knows?" Busch said.

The crowd seemed to think it was, screaming louder than it had all day.

"The reaction after that thing with Kyle was pretty impressive," Earnhardt said.

So was it revenge?

"No, but it certainly is ironic," Earnhardt said with a smile.

David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
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Conspiracy theory? Consider Kahne's chief frustrated

Kasey Kahne

Kahne

Kenny Francis, the crew chief for Kasey Kahne, was furious after one pit stop Sunday, saying he believed Travis Kvapil had blocked Kahne's exit from pit road.

Conspiracy theorists will read a little more into it. Kvapil drives for Yates Racing, a partner of Roush Fenway Racing. Jamie McMurray, who races for RFR, was pitting behind Kahne.

Kahne started the race 31 points behind RFR driver David Ragan, both of whom were trying to catch Clint Bowyer for the final Chase spot.

So Kahne was asked if he though Kvapil and McMurray had team orders to cause him problems in the pits.

"They made it tough on me, whether they had team orders or not," Kahne said. "On the first stop, the 38 [Kvapil] was as far out of his pit box as he could be. If anything, he struggled getting in and out of the pit box all day, rather than try to block us."

-- Terry Blount

Tough day for Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing had at least three drivers in the top 10 in each of the three previous races, including all five RFR drivers at Michigan. But that string ended Sunday.

No RFR driver posted a top-10 finish at Richmond. Three of them wrecked: Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan, who failed to make the Chase and finished 32nd. Biffle was 14th and Kenseth was 39th.

Carl Edwards cut a tire and had to pit under green, but still finished a team-best 13th. Jamie McMurray finished 29th.

-- T.B.

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