If you watch NASCAR (as I’ve heard people do) to see crashes, then today was your day. But if you watch it (as I do) because you like the colorful personalities of the drivers, then today at Bristol was your day, too. I much prefer clashes to crashes, although sometimes the two go hand in hand.

Kurt Busch won because he bumped leader Matt Kenseth. A lap or two later, Kenseth and Jeff Gordon were fighting for third place, and Gordon gave Kenseth a little push and drove by him. It was probably less than a lap later that Kenseth spun Gordon out. Kenseth finished third and Gordon, who was knocked back to twenty-first place, was having none of Kenseth’s post-race attempt at explanation or apology. Kenseth got a shove in the chest for his trouble, but he later admitted that he probably should have waited for tempers to cool before approaching Gordon.

The funny thing is, all of these drivers I’ve mentioned are past series champions, and this is only the fifth race of the season (and all of this activity took place in the last five of 500 laps, but the bumping and bruising started on the very first lap). They all meet again next week at Martinsville, another volatile short track, so we can expect more of this kind of action. Clashes and crashes both.

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